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-THE MINISTER 
AND HIS OWN SOUL 


THOMAS HAMILTON LEWIS, pp., Lup. 


By the Author of 





DIVINE CREDENTIALS OF THE BIBLE 
THE GOOD LIFE 

THE MODERN PILGRIM 

METHODIST PROTESTANT HANDBOOK 
étc., etc. 


THE MINISTER 


AND pi thee 


HIS OWN SOUL 


A STUDY OF MINISTERIAL POWER 


BY 


THOMAS HAMILTON LEWIS, p.p., LL». 


PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST 
PROTESTANT CHURCH. PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF WESTERN 
MARYLAND COLLEGE. 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 


BISHOP WILLIAM FRASER McDOWELL 


New SBY vorx 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


sy 


COPYRIGHT, 1926, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


THE MINISTER AND HIS OWN SOUL 
ett Aes 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


AN EXPLANATION WITH 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


These addresses were prepared for an annual as- 
sembly of ministers at Westminster, Maryland, in 
August, 1925, and known as The Summer Confer- 
ence. 

Rev. JAMEs H. StraucHn, D.D., 


president of .the Conference, first suggested to me 
the task, and kept me at it when I fain would have 
given it up. 

Rev. G. Il. Humpureys, D.D., 

Revo kh. LL SuHrPriey; DD. 

Rev. W. H. Litsincer, D.D., 


a Committee appointed by the Conference, initiated 
and through many obstacles carried to successful 
completion all the arrangements for publication. 

I am deeply indebted to all these brethren, all of 
them old students of mine, and dear comrades now 
in the same ministerial ranks, for their considerate 
and zealous service, which was, I know, a labor of 
love. 

But for what has been left undone that should 
have been done, or done that should have been left 
undone in the addresses themselves, they must not 
be chargeable, and the responsibility must fall alone 
on 

Tue AUTHOR. 


te me 
FO te) | 
Shey 
Re eae 


et te 





INTRODUCTION 


By Bispop W. F. McDoweE Lu 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church 


The problem of the ministry, like other prob- 
lems, is always with us. The problems of 
teaching, of farming, of banking, of medicine, 
of writing and editing and of statesmanship are 
just as current and just as urgent, though per- 
haps we who are in the ministry are not so con- 
scious of them. But in all of them the deepest 
of all the problems is the personal one. “From 
the days of Socrates to this day,” said Dr. 
Charles J. Little once, “the problem of the 
school has been the schoolmaster.” And you 
can substitute one word for another and make 
a fairly universal law out of that. “The prob- 
lem of banking is the banker.” “The problem 
of farming is the farmer.” So it would run. 
But in no other occupation is the personal ques- 
tion deeper than in the ministry. In a sense so 
real as to be awful the problem of the ministry 
from the first has been the minister. 


It is always interesting when a real minister 
Vii 


Vill Introduction 


by any process opens the windows of his life 
and lets his brethren look in. He may not seem 
to be doing that at all. He may seem all the 
time to be himself looking outward at the min- 
istry which he shares with his brethren. But 
as he speaks, freely and frankly, carefully and 
affectionately, his very speech opens the win- 
dows into his own personality, even while it 
throws light upon the common calling. Thus 
the Yale Lectures, spoken by many men since 
Beecher, are so autobiographical as to be almost 
more truly studies in personality than essays in 
homiletics. 

And this is wholly psychological and natural 
in a calling like the ministry or teaching or 
medicine. Perhaps the outstanding illustration 
of it is seen there in the Corinthian letter which 
Professor Robertson has made to live again for 
us in “The Glory of the Ministry.” The words 
of St. Paul to the Corinthians not only throw a 
brilliant light upon the ministry as a calling but 
upon the Apostle as a man and minister. Those 
counsels and declarations concerning the min- 
istry reveal his controlling ideals in the minis- 
try. Of course, he is not trying to show what 
he is or what he has achieved. The best auto- 


Introduction 1X 


biography shows much more clearly what its 
subject aimed to be than what he was. So with 
the lectures and the letters. The ideals are the 
main thing. And one would better lose his life 
than lose his ideals. Indeed if he has lost his 
ideals in his ministry he is already dead though 
perhaps still “having a name to live.” 

This volume of lectures by President Lewis 
runs true to the profoundest philosophy and 
principles of the ministry. It is full of wise 
advice and counsels that may be properly 
classed as practical. But the thing that has 
held me as I have had the privilege of reading 
the manuscript has been the spirit living and 
glowing on all these pages and in each of these 
chapters. This “good minister of Jesus Christ” 
has manifestly kept his own soul on top 
through the half century in which he has been 
a minister. The “spiritual glow’ has not gone 
either from his life or his calling. And it is 
wholesomely, vividly present in this study of 
ministerial power. All this combines to make 
this one of those creative volumes which go 
with sure power to the making of better minis- 
ters of those who follow its counsels and catch 
its spirit. 


x Introduction 


I count myself and my own church greatly 
honored in being permitted even in this small 
way to link my name with these lectures pre- 
pared by this leader in our sister church, hon- 
ored and loved in all the churches bearing the 
Methodist name, and beyond. His scholarship, 
his eloquence, and his fraternal spirit are our 
common possession, and we gladly welcome to 
our literature this latest fruit of his rich minis- 
try in Christ’s name. 


Bishop’s Residence, 
Washington, D. C. 
December 16, 1925, 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER : PAGE 
> PRELIMINARY ASSUMPTIONS « « « «) « 15 


PUMPAACANIED DISPOSITION © °c) 1 ate )e* ue le) wei he 
PCs T HE BNERGEIA OF LOVE 005 55) 4 es) Oar 4S 
PREC ESE POISON OF PEACE 0) 0) Ua shi 4! ei ee OS 
MEET ORT EM Acar Ue ee Lei) a like shane heh ath iad ni OD 


VI ST. PAUL’S SCHEME FOR MINISTERIAL CUL- 
TURE . . . . ad °. . ° . . FEL 








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fi Lee Ane ye aes, 


I: PRELIMINARY ASSUMPTIONS 





THE MINISTER AND 
HIS OWN SOUL 


IT: PRELIMINARY ASSUMPTIONS 


The old adage that a good shoemaker may 
be known by his barefooted children depended 
on the reasoning that a good shoemaker would 
be so busy making shoes for his many custom- 
ers he would have no time to make any for his 
children. There may be something in it. Good 
craftsmen usually look out for themselves last. 
Their devotion to the public may not be wholly 
altruistic, but it deserves and usually receives 
the reward of success. 

Still, there may be instances where this as- 
sumption will not hold. Sometimes good serv- 
ice to the public is not possible without good 
service to one’s self first of all. The minister 
is an outstanding example of this. He serves 
the public more by example than by precept. 


In fact the public refuses to accept his service 
15 


16 The Minister and His Own Soul 


at all unless his practice conforms to his pre- 
cept. They will surely say unto him this pro- 
verb, Physician, heal thyself. Many a good 
sermon is wasted, not because it goes over peo- 
ple’s heads, but because it is trampled on daily 
by the preacher’s walk and conversation. 

That is to say, the public assumes that the 
preacher is a good man. While it is not true 
that every good man is fitted for the ministry 
no man is fitted for it who is not good. The 
primary concern, therefore, of ministers as of 
other men, and, indeed, more than other men, is 
personal goodness. Ministers like other men 
have 

“A never dying soul to save 
And fit it for the sky.” 


If their own soul is not right they will be 
wholly wrong as individuals and as ministers 
blind leaders of the blind. ‘Lest that by any 
means, when I have preached to others, I my- 
self should be a castaway.” 

Another assumption, not always remembered 
by the minister or by his critics, is that the min- 
ister has the same fight against the world, the 
flesh and the devil that all good men must wage. 


Preliminary Assumptions 17 


It is true that a minister has a greater incen- 
tive to goodness, and a larger opportunity of 
times and occasions than other men, but these 
very facts make his contest all the more severe. 
His sense of sin grows keener as his incentive 
to holiness deepens. His opportunities rebuke 
his omissions as additional aggravations. He 
feels the pull of fleshly temptations as much as 
any man, and, like Saint Paul, he must buffet 
his body and bring it into subjection. So that 
more than other men his attainment of vital 
godliness is a constant and strenuous warfare. 

But there is a more serious aspect of the sub- 
ject we are meditating upon. A minister’s own 
soul is, what every man’s soul is, his vital self, 
to be saved, cultivated, developed and brought 
to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ.” Butitismore. It will not be disputed 
that both the capacity for and the source of all 
the power we can legitimately employ as min- 
isters must come, not from “the election of thy 
brethren and the imposition of our hands,” as 
is said in our ordination, but from the precious 
deposit in our own souls of personal goodness, 
No amount of work done for others will make 
us good, and, alas, neglect of our own goodness 


18 The Minister and His Own Soul 


makes us impotent to help others to be good. 
People may for a time be deceived by a show of 
goodness, but the insincere preacher is usually 
found out and despised. ‘Thou therefore 
which teachest another, teachest thou not thy- 
self ?” 

And the minister must have reserves of 
power in his own spiritual life, or he will labor 
in vain no matter how busily. The sad fact is 
that ministers sometimes suffer this depletion, 
not only without being aware of it or of its 
cause, but while they are pursuing the best in- 
tentions. Ministers know very well, although 
it may sound strange to laymen, that there is 
constant danger in the ministerial life and work 
to overlook the spiritual needs of the minister 
himself. Most ministers have realized that 
times of great spiritual revival among the peo- 
ple have proved sometimes to be seasons of spir- 
itual dearth with the minister. Not that the 
minister has been insincere, but he has simply 
emptied himself in his great desire to serve his 
people, and has forgotten that his own spiritual 
needs were as imperative and as constant as 
those of his people. 

Nor is this danger of spiritual depletion lim- 


Preliminary Assumptions 19 


ited to times of excitement. The minister’s 
daily routine, so comforting, so helpful, so 
blessed to his people, may be his own spiritual 
vampire. The surgeon becomes increasingly 
insensible to suffering in his intentness upon 
removing it. And that is well for the surgeon 
and for us. But it is not well for a minister to 
become dulled in his spiritual sensibilities by 
ministering so constantly to keep alive the sen- 
sibilities of others. It is tragic when a minister 
praying so much for others finds his prayers 
not moving his own soul, preaching so much to 
others and bringing no message to his own soul, 
serving constantly at the altar and failing “to 
offer up sacrifices first for his own sins.” 
Beyond this assumption we must go one step 
further to the admission that if power for serv- 
ice does not come out of anything exterior to 
the minister but out of his own soul he ought 
not to make the mistake of placing his emphasis 
so as practically to deny this. Power is the out- 
come of what a man is, not of what he has; cer- 
tainly that is true of spiritual power. Minis- 
ters are constantly emphasizing this truth in ex- 
horting their people not to put their trust in 
riches, social position, or any other mere pos- 


20 The Minister and His Own Soul 


sessions. But they would seem sometimes to 
be forgetting this emphasis in their own case. 
When they begin to feel or to fear that 
they are not succeeding in their ministry, that 
they lack power, they are too prone to look for 
the cause in something outside of themselves. 
Perhaps it is, they think, because they are not 
in the right pastorate, or because their church 
is not well located, or because they do not have 
a sufficiently modern church equipment, or be- 
cause their denomination is too small to furnish 
them a suitable arena. They hunt for a score 
of “becauses”’ to explain their failure when per- 
haps, I will not say certainly, for there may be 
contributing causes that make success more dif- 
ficult than it need be, but perhaps the real cause 
of their failure is in themselves; they have small 
success because they are small men and weak 
men in the essentials of power. 

Assuming, therefore, that every minister de- 
sires most of all to make full proof of his min- 
istry, and that whatever power a minister has 
is conditioned on the cultivation of his own 
soul, I have attempted to outline a few of the 
many roads that lead to personal goodness 
which means personal power. The end I have 


Preliminary Assumptions 21 


in these addresses is to search into the recesses 
of our own souls to see if we have developed the 
essential elements of power within us by the 
usual methods of Christian culture. But I must 
disclaim any idea of being regarded as an ex- 
pert. I do not imagine that I have made any 
new discoveries in character. I am not at- 
tempting any excursions into psycho-analysis. 
I have not had even a very extended experience 
in the pastorate, although I have been a 
preacher fifty years. I have nothing at all to 
offer, in fact, but the old, old truths familiar to 
everybody who has lived long enough to know 
something about himself, and who is humble 
enough to acknowledge what have been the 
chief causes of his most frequent failures. 
Whatever appeal my remarks may make must 
arise from your conviction of their truth. Yet 
as even a layman might see some secret of a 
successful ministry hidden from those much 
nearer to it, perhaps my experience in the pew 
for so many years may have enabled me to 
see some things which pastors may have over- 
looked, or at least, my view of them may have 
been from a different angle. 

It was during a rather prolonged meditation 


22 The Minister and His Own Soul 


upon a passage in Saint Paul’s Epistle to the 
Colossians, iii:12-17, that the theme of these 
addresses took shape and divided itself among 
four topics, (1) A Good Disposition, (2) The 
Energeia of Love, (3) The Poise of Peace, (4) 
Optimism. To these I have added as complet- 
ing my idea in the way of supplement or exer- 
cise in attaining these graces a study of an- 
other passage from Saint Paul’s second Epistle 
to the Corinthians, vi:3-13, which I have called, 
“Saint Paul’s Scheme for Ministerial Culture.” 

I must say in all frankness that I do not sup- 
pose that the Apostle had solely or even princi- 
pally in mind in either of these exhortations the 
needs of ministers as a class. He addressed 
them “To the saints and faithful brethren in 
Christ which are at Colossae, at Corinth,” and 
not to a special class of them. If I seem to nar- 
row the Apostle’s intention in my application 
of his words, I plead in justification the as- 
sumptions I have already mentioned to the ef- 
fect that as a minister is a man before he is a 
minister, and as power in a minister must pre- 
sume the possession of a power that every 
Christian has or may have, we cannot be very 
far astray in demanding that ministers must at- 


Preliminary Assumptions 29 


tain at least to this degree of Christian power 
along with all other Christians. 

The personal qualities I have selected for 
discussion are not of course exhaustive, but I 
believe they are fundamental, and they will 
serve as well as any for example. Their ap- 
pearance of being commonplace may cause 
some to underestimate their importance, but on 
the other hand they are so certainly attainable 
by us all that some may be persuaded to start 
in this course who otherwise would not attempt 
anything. And I am deeply convinced that per- 
manent success in the ministry is impossible 
without them. In other words, that every min- 
ister who would have power in his ministry 
must have a good disposition, must be a shining 
example of love in action, must exhibit easily 
and always the poise that peace provides, must 
be carried forward and upward on the wings 
of optimism, and must constantly exercise him- 
self thereunto through all the varying, trying, 
painful experiences of the minister’s life. 


‘s ris = 
y tay. 


res 2s 
/ WAM A: 
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II: A GOOD DISPOSITION 


“Be clothed with compassion, kindliness, humility and good 
temper—forbear and forgive each other in any case of com- 
plaint; as Christ forgave you, so must you forgive.” 


The Text 
CoLOSSIANS iii: 12-17 


(As a commentary, or an illumination, it might be called, on 
the Authorized Version, this is given in the translation of 
Moffatt.) 

“As God’s own chosen, then, as consecrated and beloved, be 
clothed with compassion, kindliness, humility, gentleness, and 
good temper—forbear and forgive each other in any case of 
complaint; as Christ forgave you, so must you forgive. And 
above all you must be loving, for love is the link of the perfect 
life. Also, let the peace of Christ be supreme in your hearts 
—that is why you have been called as members of the one 
Body. And you must be thankful. Let the inspiration of 
Christ dwell in your midst with all its wealth of wisdom; 
teach and train one another with the music of psalms, with 
hymns, and songs of the spiritual life; praise God with thank- 
ful hearts. Indeed, whatever you say or do, let everything 
be done in dependence on the Lord Jesus, giving thanks in 
his name to God the Father.” 


II: A GOOD DISPOSITION 


The five qualities named in the verses quoted 
which I have summed up as constituting a good | 
disposition, are familiar to all readers of the 
New Testament, for they constantly occur 
there. These qualities describe character in its 
social relations, and they make up what we are 
accustomed to think of as disposition consid- 
ered as a man’s relation to his fellow-men. For 
there is no such thing as disposition without 
society. If a man dwelt absolutely alone he 
would have no disposition, strictly speaking. 
That would be to be disposed towards nothing, 
to live in a vacuum, or abstractly. Disposition 
lies in the way a man places himself in social 
relations. Accordingly there must be carried in 
mind throughout these meditations the idea that 
each of these qualities is defined and understood 
as always modified by an attitude or an action 
towards other men. It will require only a few 
words of definition of each of these qualities to 


justify this remark. 
27 


28 The Minister and His Own Soul 


“Compassion,” called in the Authorized Ver- 
sion, “bowels of mercies,” in the Revised Ver- 
sion, ‘‘a heart of compassion,” and in Ephe- 
sians, ‘‘tender-hearted,”’ is one of the most 
beautiful words and one of the most attractive 
qualities we know. It is a delight to trace the 
use of this word in the Gospels as applied to 
Christ. When he would feed the hungry multi- 
tude in the desert, it was because “he was 
moved with compassion.” So, often in his heal- 
ing mercies, it is explained that “he had com- 
passion on them.” The agonized father who 
brought his child to Jesus just after his trans- 
figuration exclaimed in his despair, “If thou 
canst do anything, have compassion on us and 
help us,” nor did he appeal in vain; no one ever 
appealed in vain to his compassion. Is it not 
written, “We have not a high priest which can- 
not be touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
ties’? As in all things it behooved him to be 
made like unto his brethren, his compassion is 
the outstanding characteristic of his earthly 
ministry. Thus he brought himself close to us, 
suffered in our suffering, made himself a 
partner in our distress, a brother in our sor- 
row, a very perfect, human Christ. 


A Good Disposition 29 


“Kindliness” is like compassion in being a 
feeling, but it is an active feeling, an impulse to 
help. It is sometimes translated “goodness,” 
meaning to do good to others, to be helpful. 
The word is related to “kin,” suggesting that 
the feeling is one that grows out of our rela- 
tionship. We are kind because we are kin. 
God’s kindness to us, Saint Paul declares, is 
through Jesus Christ, he is kin to us through 
his Son. 

“Humility” and ‘“‘Gentleness” are both of the 
same general nature in that they describe the 
method of expressing the feeling rather than 
the feeling itself. Humility is often mistaken 
for self-abasement. It is self-abasement in 
those cases where we have unduly exalted our- 
selves, but it does not mean that we are to put 
ourselves always and absolutely below others. 
Humility comes from a word that means “on 
the ground.” And when we come down from 
some imaginary pedestal to which we have been 
exalted, the preacher from his pulpit, the 
wealthy from his throne of gold, the aristocrat 
from his palace, and take our places on the 
eround with other people, that is humility. So 
necessary a grace is this in trying to be com- 


30 The Minister and His Own Soul 


passionate and kind that much of what men 
attempt in these impulses is wasted and scorn- 
fully rejected because we look at the recipients 
from too lofty a ‘eight; we fail to bring our 
benefits down to the ground with them. 

“Gentleness” is also a method of expressing 
sympathetic and helpful impulses. The word is 
usually translated ‘“meekness.” It is regarded 
with scant enthusiasm for the most part, and — 
is flouted by many as unmanly. But this is a 
misapprehension. Jesus described himself as 
“meek and lowly in heart,” and we dare not 
think of him as unmanly. Gentleness is really 
tact. So many benevolent people spoil their 
generous efforts by lack of tact. They throw 
their good gifts at people, or they bully people 
in trying to help them, or they blut.der into the 
mistake of supposing that their benevolent feel- 
ing gives them the right to lecture people on 
their misfortunes. Blessed is the man who 
knows how to do good tactfully. 

“Long suffering’ is everywhere in the Bible 
exhibited as one of the exalted attributes of 
God and a cardinal virtue in men. It is admi- 
rably rendered by Moffatt as “good temper,” 
one of the most accurate and happiest attempts 


A Good Disposition 21 


to capture the original that I have noticed any- 
where. It comes from a root that means “to 
boil,” prefixed to which is the word meaning 
“long’’ or “slow,” and the sum of it is to ex- 
press restraint, the holding the impulses under 
control, literally, to come to the boiling point 
slowly. This is a description of our reaction 
to the treatment of others. Some of us, alas, 
most of us, react too quickly; others, and they 
are fortunate souls, take a long time to come 
to the boiling point. Their charity suffereth 
‘long and is kind. When any of us are most 
like this we are most like God. It would in- 
crease greatly our appreciation of this word and 
quality to go through the Scriptures and dis- 
cover how many blessings from God we owe 
to his good temper, and to reflect also with 
shame how many good things we have failed 
to bestow on others for the lack of it in us. 
One can easily understand how essential this 
virtue is to the man who leads or is constantly 
in association with movements that antagonize 
human nature. Success in most instances is 
for the man who can continue to be compassion- 
ate and kind in spite of the contradiction of 
sinners. That quick, enthusiastic temperament 


32 The Minister and His Own Soul 


so characteristic of youth, accomplishes great 
things in the battle of life without doubt, and, 
it must be admitted, also much sad wreckage. 
The final and permanent victories however are 
usually with the slow boilers, men who can hold 
themselves well in hand in the most eager con- 
tests, not easily excited, and never resentful 
even when excited. 

These five qualities of mind and heart are 
not to be regarded as exhausting the definition 
of a good disposition, yet they cover a fairly 
wide range, and, so far as our relations to 
others are concerned, they cover all we are con- 
cerned with here, namely a good disposition for 
a minister. For the minister is chiefly con- 
cerned with human intercourse, and that de- 
pends for success or failure on these qualities. 
Speaking generally we may say that if a man 
has genuine sympathy for men; if, as we fami- 
liarly say, he likes folks; if he is ready and will- 
ing to do something, anything in his power, 
for folks, asking not to be ministered unto but 
to minister; if he puts himself thoroughly at 
the disposal of his people by standing on the 
ground with them, not assuming airs; if he can 
exhibit such gentleness of behavior, such tact 


A Good Disposition 33 


and refinement in management as to make him 
a natural leader; and if in all this he can keep 
a good temper, “not rendering evil for evil, or 
railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, 
knowing that he is thereunto called, that he 
should receive a blessing,” we may say to him 
in Kipling’s words, 


“Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, 
And what is more, you'll be a man, my son.” 


The exhortation of the Apostle is to put on 
' this disposition, and this is to some a stone of 
stumbling. They are not willing to accept 
without protest the idea that they need “doing 
over,’ and they say rather defiantly, “If you 
want me you will have to take me as I am.” 
Congregations will not argue the point; they 
will accept the option and simply decline to take 
them at all. But somebody ought to argue with 
these brethren, for the success of their ministry 
is at stake. 

Can a man put on a good disposition when 
he was not born that way? asks our modern 
Nicodemus. A good disposition is natural to 
some people, and they ought to thank God day 
and night for a goodly heritage, also remem- 


34 The Minister and His Own Soul 


bering that to whom much is given of him will 
much be required. But a good disposition may 
also be acquired, and Saint Paul lays it upon 
God’s own chosen, consecrated and beloved, as 
an obligation. Are we not taught that when 
we come under the influence of the Spirit of 
Christ old things pass away, all things become 
new? Did not Saint Paul proudly claim, “By 
the grace of God,” not by nature, “I am what 
Iam’? If the grace of God can’t change an 
ugly and hurtful disposition into a helpful and 
beautiful one how can we magnify the grace of 
God as omnipotent? Perhaps we cannot put 
this accomplishment into our courses of study; 
only the Spirit of God and the actual bludgeon- 
ings of experience will change some disposi- 
tions; but if we could find some way to examine 
candidates on this point we might save time 
now wasted in doubtful experiments. 

For I am not saying anything you do not 
know when I name a good disposition as one 
of the essential elements of power in the minis- 
try. We take various precautions now to save 
the Church from disappointment in the men en- 
tering the ministry. We examine them care- 
fully as to preaching ability, pastoral efficiency, 


A Good Disposition 25 


industry, even a man’s family often comes 
under scrutiny; but we are disposed to treat a 
man’s disposition in the most casual way, as if 
it were a squint or some trifling physical defect, 
unless we detect some flagrant fault. And yet 
it might result, it frequently does result, that 
the whole success or failure of a minister turns 
at last on his disposition. 

We know how much a man’s disposition has 
to do with his success in every department of 
active life; how it seems to make success so 
- easy for some, smoothing out all the difficulties, 
reconciling all the antagonisms; and how his 
disposition makes everything hard for another 
and perhaps a stronger man; how it neutralizes 
the finest talents, the most energetic labors and 
brings the best intentions to naught. How 
much more is this true in the case of ministers, 
whose chief and constant problem is to get 
along with people. And so in spite of fine 
preaching ability and strong administrative 
capacity, there are some ministers whom no 
congregations want or will keep any longer 
than it takes to find them out; while other min- 
isters in spite of the most moderate ability in 
every line win their way to loving popularity, 


36 The Minister and His Own Soul 


and any congregation is glad to get them and 
sorry to part with them. 

There is another aspect of the case which will 
bring the need of a good disposition more im- 
pressively to our mind. A large part of a min- 
ister’s trouble and conflict is of a passive sort; 
that is, his opponents are not for the most part 
those who assail him, so much as those who 
will not help him. If the minister would let 
them alone they would not trouble him, but, be- 
cause the object of his ministry is to arouse 
them to an active participation in goodness and 
sacrifice and unselfish cooperation, he must ex- 
hort with all long suffering and doctrine, and 
they object and complain and criticize, and al- 
ways hold back. What the minister needs in 
such circumstances is not a sword, but a shield. 
There is nobody to fight, for these people who 
will not help look up innocently and say, “I 
didn’t do anything,’ which is precisely true 
and precisely the trouble. 

A minister's power must therefore consist 
partly in the ability to defend himself in this 
contest with inertia and indifference. Saint 
Paul prayed to be delivered from unreasonable 
and wicked men. Every minister has cause to 


A Good Disposition oie, 


offer that prayer frequently. When his plans 
are unreasonably opposed, his motives unrea- 
sonably questioned, his walk and conversation 
unreasonably criticized, nothing is so effective 
in turning the edge of the attack as the sweet 
reasonableness of a good disposition. It is the 
shield that quenches all the fiery darts of the 
wicked. It is like shooting flaming torches 
into the sea, all that happens is a siss and it is 
over. They get discouraged in shooting hard 
words and unreasonable complaints at a man 
who simply smiles and keeps on his kind way. 
Just to keep sweet ourselves is the surest way of 
making other people sweet. It is the best anti- 
septic of the poison of biting tongues, it dis- 
arms sermon critics, it neutralizes church quar- 
rels, it brings people to church and makes the 
minister a welcome visitor in every home. 

Why then, it may be asked as a final ques- 
tion, does not every minister put on this shield 
of a good disposition? A perfectly frank an- 
swer would not be entirely creditable to us, I 
fear, either to our mental acumen or to our 
religion. It is however a fact, I believe, that 
many persons afflicted in this way do not know 
it. They think their disposition is all right. It 


38 The Minister and His Own Soul 


suits them so well that they cannot imagine it 
would be objectionable to anyone else. The old 
difficulty of seeing ourselves as others see us. 
The other strange thing is that such persons 
feel it to be a reflection upon them to undertake 
to change their disposition. It is a confession 
few are courageous enough to make. It is not 
to be supposed that ministers are blamable in 
these respects more than other men, but they 
are liable to a temptation on account of their 
occupation that other men escape. That temp- 
tation is to be self-centered. Their position in 
the community is one of leadership, and mat- 
ters are referred to them because they are lead- 
ers in the work of the church. It takes a strong 
character to resist the feeling of importance 
that comes from official position. And when 
the minister is deferred to so constantly it is 
not surprising that he should come to think 
that he is the standard to which others should 
conform. He becomes sensitive, suspicious, ex- 
acting, egotistic, and nothing would surprise 
him more than to be told that his disposition 
needs improvement. Nothing grieves him more 
than to have to confess that his power is wan- 
ing; his people still defer to him, but do not 


A Good Disposition 39 


follow him; he still occupies, but he no longer 
fills the position; his power has gone from him 
and he has become as other men. 

Forgive me, brethren, if I seem severe in 
these reflections. But it is so great a matter, 
this matter of ministerial power, and our re- 
sources are so abundant for attaining the high- 
est power, and the Holy Spirit is so ready to 
help our infirmities, that I am bold to speak 
frankly of them. Let us constantly strive and 
pray, in great matters and small to come to the 
full measure of the stature of perfect men 
in Christ Jesus, and in the spirit of prayer let 
us repeat together those familiar words: 


Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in the form of God, thought it 
not robbery to be equal with God: 

But made Himself of no reputation, and 
took upon Him the form of a servant, and 
was made in the likeness of men: 

And being found in fashion as a man, He 
humbled Himself, and became obedient to 
death, even the death of the cross. 

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted 


40 The Minister and His Own Soul 


Him, and given Him a name which ts above 
every name: 

That at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things 
in earth, and things under the earth: 

And that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the 
Father. 


Iii: THE ENERGEIA OF LOVE 


“And above all you must be loving, for love is the link of 
the perfect life.” 


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Ill: THE ENERGEIA OF LOVE 


I realize that the title I have chosen for this 
chapter smacks of pedantry. When one wants 
to speak of love as one of the principal sources 
of a minister’s power it would seem simpler 
and in better literary taste to entitle his chap- 
ter, “The power of love,” or “Love as energy.” 
Perhaps my apology is inadequate, but I really 
had a reason and not merely a whim for the 
fantastic for framing the title as it is. 

Love is energy, the highest energy, and I 
have used the Greek form of the word because 
energy as used in the New Testament never 
means mechanical energy, or human energy, but 
superhuman, divine energy. It comes to us if 
it comes at all as a gift of God. Even Satan’s 
energy, superhuman as it is, is declared to be 
of God in the permissive sense. I have there- 
fore wished to bring to mind at the beginning 
of this discussion the idea that this element of 
power is not something into which we can be 


educated or trained, but that it is part of that 
43 


44 The Minister and His Own Soul 


new creation obtained by us through the Holy 
Spirit. 

The other word in the title, love, is peculiar 
also, although even the Greek word will give 
us little help in comprehending it, because we 
must separate it wholly from the common 
meaning it has among men. It belongs exclu- 
sively to New Testament literature, and al- 
ways refers to a sentiment, unheard of before 
Christ’s time, and produced in the disciples 
of Jesus by his great example and sacrifice, of 
love to God and then to men; not as emotion 
but as expression. I mean that the sentiment 
born of appetite and passion is so different 
from the love exemplified in Jesus that another 
word was coined to define what springs from 
a longing to express ourselves in some attitude 
or act. The love of Jesus and of Saint Paul 
and of all his disciples, in other words, is love 
in action. This longing may arise from many 
sources. It may be a feeling of compassion or 
brotherhood. It may be the call of a high am- 
bition to do nobler thing's than we have hitherto 
attempted. It may be a command from one 
entitled to our entire devotion. Thus adoration 
may lead us to love the most adorable of be- 


The Energeia of Love 45 


ings by expressions of adoration in worship. 
Our humanity may lead us to love men, even 
our enemies, by expressions of good will and 
clemency. Such exhibitions are not properly 
emotions so much as eager expressions of our- 
selves. 

One other word must be noticed. Speaking 
of putting on certain qualities of mind or dis- 
position, the Apostle completes the figure by 
saying that above all these love is to be put 
on as a bond or girdle and thus unite the whole 
.in orderly array. Moffatt’s version suggests 
“link” instead of “bond.” In one sense “link” 
is synonymous with “bond.” But those famil- 
iar with mechanical devices for applying power 
will recall another use of this word “link,” viz., 
the link-power engine, in which the various 
parts of the machine are coordinated so as to 
work together in gear and thus multiply the 
power. I am attracted by this latter notion as 
a suitable one for the passage. As Jesus came 
with a new purpose and a new instrument, so 
he brought a new impulse and a new applica- 
tion of the impulse to produce results. His 
salvation motived by his love was to be effec- 
tuated by a new sort of energy which was to 


46 The Minister and His Own Soul 


be linked up to all other moving forces and be- 
come the power of God. 

I think we will be greatly helped in the ex- 
plication of this idea by studying briefly the 
incident in the New Testament where Jesus has 
an interview with Peter after the resurrection. 
Peter and the other disciples had gone away to 
their old occupation, despairing of the king- 
dom which they had thought would come. 
Jesus appears on the shore of the sea of Galilee, 
and after he had partaken of a simple meal 
with them, he asks Peter three times in suc- 
cession, ‘““Lovest thou me?” Peter assures the 
Lord of his affection, but persists in choosing 
a different word than the word Jesus had used 
for “love.” Jesus uses the new word, the word 
his own life and death had brought to the 
world. Peter cannot bring himself to adopt 
that word. Peter’s word is a personal, worldly, 
emotional word for affection. The word of 
Jesus is the new, heavenly, world-embracing 
word, that swallows up all personal and emo- 
tional considerations. Peter has the power of 
personal affection, but he has not yet learned 
the energy that lies in this new affection ex- 
pressing itself in action. 


The Energeia of Love 47 


A second and more striking part of this in- 
cident is that Jesus adopts this particular ques- 
tion as the test for Peter’s readmission to the 
number of his disciples, “Lovest thou me.” 
Peter’s denial was not treachery, it was weak- 
ness due to his misunderstanding, or lack of 
understanding, it was his imperfect notion of 
what true loyalty and service demanded, and 
it was his failure to surrender himself fully 
to his chosen position as a disciple. Hence his 
restoration would depend not upon a more in- 
telligent apprehension, not upon a reafhrmation 
of loyalty, not upon a promise of greater cour- 
age. Or, rather the simple test proposed by 
Jesus comprehended all these and more in the 
one supreme and all-inclusive affirmation of 
love. 

And by this we are taught that Jesus weighs 
everything, tests every disciple by this infallible 
test of love. If a man’s love is right he will 
understand everything, he will do anything, he 
will surrender completely. The power that re- 
deems the individual, that keeps the disciple 
faithful, that makes the Apostle irresistible is 
love. Love solves all doubts by illuminating the 
understanding. Love lightens all labor and 


48 The Minister and His Own Soul 


makes drudgery a delight. Love lifts us to such 
heights of exalted loyalty that to live is Christ 
and to die is gain. It is no longer we that 
live but Christ liveth in us, and this becomes 
the source and secret of our energy. The old 
Greek said if he could find a place on which 
to rest his lever he could move the world. So 
we ministers of Jesus who know the secret of 
his love have found the place, we have found 
the lever, and we can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth us. 

Now let us consider a little in detail some 
of the achievements of love. 

1. Love is understanding. Ministers must 
know many things. Perhaps no men are so 
severely taxed in this respect. They must know 
themselves, they must know God, they must 
know through actual experience the power of 
his grace and his plan to save the world. But 
the preeminent business of the minister is to 
know men. It is his exclusive business to deal 
with human actions and re-actions, to interpret 
human motives, to know what appeals will in- 
fluence and persuade men to action, to sound | 
out human passions and ambitions; in fine, to 
have such a complete knowledge of human na- 


The Energeia of Love AQ 


ture that he will never be taken by surprise or 
be at a loss to know what to do in any given 
case. A heathen poet said, “I am a man, noth- 
ing concerning men is indifferent to me.” That 
is the minister’s case exactly. Man is the great 
material on which his craft is employed. Woe 
to the craftsman who does not know his mate- 
rial. 

There is a way of understanding men 
through science. The Chemist knows man as 
a material object. He can tell all the elements 
of which he is composed, so much lime, so 
much fat, so much water, so much gas; the 
physical composition of man is completely 
analyzed and tabulated in his laboratory. The 
Physiologist knows man as a physical organ- 
ism. He can tell all his bones, muscles, nerves, 
organs, their functions, their diseases, their 
limitations. His knowledge is indeed of vital 
importance to us as living beings, for by it 
we can maintain existence in spite of the con- 
stant warfare waged against us by disease and 
decay. The Psychologist knows man also, 
understanding him in the higher reactions of 
nerve impulses, of brain functioning, of 
thoughts and ideas, of all that makes up that 


50 The Minister and His Own Soul 


mysterious entity we call our mentality, Then 
comes the ethical philosopher to take up the 
study and carry it on to the understanding of 
man in his relations to other men, in many re- 
spects the most difficult and mysterious of all, 
for it involves the understanding of pleasure, 
of ambition, of duty, of conscience, of pity, of 
fairness, of loyalty to self, to his neighbor, to 
his country, to God. And finally, there is the 
practical philosopher we call the politician. It 
is his business also to know men, for by it he 
obtains his wealth. He must know how to di- 
rect their opinions, to obtain their votes, to 
manage men and things. He devotes all his 
time and efforts to this business and becomes 
the most skilful, perhaps, of all philosophers. 
Not always by corrupt practices, although these 
are not excluded if thought necessary, the poli- 
tician remains, for a wide and discriminating 
knowledge of men, our expert, the shining ex- 
ample to all pastors of diligence and devotion 
in his calling that might well be studied and 
copied. 

But all this will not suffice, there must be 
another sort of understanding. The minister 
ought to know Chemistry and Physiology and 


The Energeia of Love 51 


Psychology and Ethics. It wouldn’t do him 
any harm to have some of the wisdom of the 
children of politics even. Hardly any branch 
of learning will come amiss to him. But to 
understand men for the great purpose of the 
minister’s profession all these are insufficient. 
He must have the discernment of love. It will 
be useful to him, of course, to understand the 
physical relations and the intellectual relations 
and the moral relations of men. But to remain 
on these planes is to abdicate his highest office, 
which is to understand so as to minister to them 
in the higher spiritual planes of existence, to 
know their aspirations, their heavenly impulses, 
their soul longings, and also as well the be- 
setments of these, their temptations, their dis- 
couragements, their failures. 

The power for this sort of understanding 
will not come from reading books and studying 
social questions. No sort of special training 
will produce it. It is the gift of God, it is love 
alone that can qualify a minister in these func- 
tions. Love supplies understanding because it 
begets interest, and you can’t understand any- 
thing without interest. Love is unselfish, and 
you can’t understand people unless you study 


$2 The Minister and His Own Soul 


them unselfishly. Love is tactful, gentle, and 
SO gives access to individuals without shutting 
them up in silence and rendering them imper- 
vious to our persuasions. Never was truer 
philosophy uttered than when Saint Paul said, 
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels” in the pulpit, on the lecture platform, 
in social intercourse, “And though I under- 
stand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and 
have not love, | am become as sounding brass 
or a tinkling cymbal.” 

2. Love is service. I do not need to empha- 
size before this company that when we speak 
of the work of the ministry we are not speaking 
figuratively. It is a fundamental conception of 
the ministry. The work is hard, it is difficult, 
it is constant, it is complicated. Men who go 
into the ministry with the hope of finding an 
easy way to get a living are making the saddest 
mistake of their lives and degrading their call- 
ing. ‘No sir,” said Doctor Johnson, “the min- 
istry is not an easy calling, and I do not envy 
the man who makes it easy.” 

The constant intellectual grind for two ser- 
mons a week, the demand to meet all sorts of 


The Energeia of Love 53 


mental queries and doubts arising in his com- 
munity, the emotional strain of social and fam- 
ily and community difficulties, the individual 
experiences of pain, sorrow and strife always 
making their call upon his sensibilities, the 
physical labor involved in pastoral visiting, and 
other ministerial duties that the whole commu- 
nity feels free to call for from the minister, all 
these added to the perplexities, the difficulties 
and disappointments arising in his own church 
make the minister’s work a severe strain upon 
all his powers. And in these modern times 
when there are so many good causes, and so 
many secretaries, and so many demands for 
funds and budgets and special gifts, all look- 
ing to the pastor as “the key man,” I don’t 
wonder that ministers sometimes feel that their 
work is made more strenuous than it need be 
and that they are imposed on. 

In this situation a man will get some help 
from his conscience, his conviction that duty 
must be done at whatever cost; and from his 
ambition, his desire to be on the honor roll, his 
love of praise and his pride in being recognized 
as the leading preacher in his community. And 


54 The Minister and His Own Soul 


yet a man who relies on these and similar re- 
wards or inspirations will find the work too 
hard for human nature to endure. He will toil 
in faithfulness but there will not be the power 
in his work that he has the right to expect. 
What will give him this power? Shake- 
speare says, “The labor we delight in physics 
pain.’ Saint Paul comes nearer to the secret 
when he speaks of “the labor of love,” and re- 
minds the saints that “God is not unrighteous 
to forget your work and labor of love which 
ye have showed toward his name, in that ye 
have ministered to the saints and do minister.” 
Yes, love is the secret of power in work. It 
may be that some ministers can’t honestly say 
they love their work. In that case they must 
begin with loving God for whom they work, 
and then learn to love men on whom they work, 
until by divine grace the Holy Spirit trans- 
mutes their labor into divine service. It does 
not make so much difference then what partic- 
ular task he labors upon, the honor of his 
Master and the good of his people swallow up 
all other considerations besides that of doing 
all things to the glory of God. Love is the 
powerful alchemy that can make tasks divine. 


The Energeia of Love 55 


“A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine; 
Who sweeps a house as for thy laws, 
Makes that and the action fine.” 


Strindberg wrote a book which he called, 
“He fell in love with his wife.” I never read 
it, but if some one will write a book and call 
it, “He fell in love with his work,” I promise 
to read it and do all I can to circulate it. There 
is absolutely no hope in a ministry that is not 
impelled and supported by love. I dare to say 
it, understanding well some of the difficulties of 
the ministry, that the chief hindrance to success 
in Our ministry is not educational, although we 
do need the highest type of education; nor men 
of talent, although these are greatly to be de- 
sired; nor even faithful and industrious work- 
ers, although we will never have too many of 
these. It is the lack of men who really and ar- 
dently love their work. “Love never faileth,” 
and the minister who loves his work does not 
fail. If it is difficult, love makes it easy. If 
it is unappreciated, love makes the reward for 
itself. If it breaks a man down, love renews 
the inward man. If it is discouraging, love 
“hopeth all things.” 


56 The Minister and His Own Soul 


I, who know so little about automobiles, have 
learned this, that the engine sometimes gets to 
knocking when climbing a hill, and that the 
remedy for that trouble is to have something 
or other cleaned out, and that the best way to 
clean it out is to burn out the carbon. Well, 
brethren, would it not be wise when our spir- 
itual machinery gets to knocking, when we 
seem to be losing the “pull,” when everything 
goes wrong, when the congregation falls off 
and the budget won’t get raised and the ser- 
monic wheels drive heavily and when the tout 
ensemble is making groaning and lamentation 
day and night, to implore the Holy Spirit to 
kindle in us the sacred flame of love and burn 
out the carbon? 

3. Love means surrender. I have only a few 
minutes left for this closing remark, but I must 
ask you to fill up my lack. 

I think we find here the real meaning of the 
searching test of Peter on the shore that morn- 
ing of the incident I have related. Jesus saw 
in Peter’s failure and in the possible failure 
of all who were to succeed him one and only 
one cause. Peter had once said to Jesus, “Lo, 
we have left all and followed thee; what shall 


The Energeia of Love 57 


we have therefore?” He didn’t realize it at the 
time, but the last part of his question gave the 
lie to the first. No man completely surrenders 
to his work who does not surrender its rewards. 
It reminds me of making an argument for tith- 
ing by dwelling on the profit you will get out 
of it for yourself. Are you a tither in your 
ministry? If the tenth is your measure how 
can you talk about surrender? And if you 
have really surrendered what does it mean that 
you are dissatisfied with your salary, or your 
parsonage, or your appointment? And how, I 
ask in the name of all that is sincere and sacred 
in the call to the ministry, can we who believe 
God has called us into the ministry complain 
about our salary, or even retire from the min- 
istry on the ground that we can do as much 
good elsewhere and incidentally get better paid 
for it? 

Brethren, we cannot afford to use any re- 
serves or modifications in this surrender, for 
we are dealing with God. I don’t mean to sug- 
gest an odious comparison by the allusion, but 
was not the sin that Peter pronounced a lie 
against the Holy Ghost just this, that Ananias 
kept back part of the price? The ministry de- 


58 The Minister and His Own Soul 


mands surrender. We may accept or refuse 
the call, but we can’t accept the call and refuse 
the surrender. This sublime calling confronts 
the candidate with a grim aspect, and its mean- 
ing is unmistakable, “I have no terms to pro- 
pose except immediate and unconditional sur- 
render.” 

The making of this surrender is a spiritual 
crisis. I am not going into any tests of it here. 
Perhaps it is not allowable for any of us to 
undertake to test others in this matter. But 
one thing is certain and cannot be overem- 
phasized; nothing but love can enable a man to 
make that surrender in sincerity and truth. 
Love makes no calculations; love will have no 
bargains; love will admit no conditions. Love 
uses only universals in expressing its contract, 
“beareth all things, believeth al] things, hopeth 
all things, endureth all things.” That is why 
it never fails, having given all it is ready for 
all and expects all. 

Yet—testify against me, brethren, if this is 
not true—there is no power except in surren- 
der. Mr. Moody is reported to have said that 
he started out on his mission of evangelism 
with just one controlling idea, he was deter- 


The Energeia of Love 59 


mined to let God prove what he could do with 
a man wholly surrendered to him in thought, 
word and deed, by making himself that man. 
There is no other way to give God a chance 
with us except in surrender. You may find a 
way to make a noise in the newspaper cymbals; 
you may get a conference reputation for eff- 
ciency, for popularity and all that which looks 
so much like power; but in the silence of your 
own soul you will know that if you have not 
love you have not the power that prevails with 
God and with men. 

It is a great price to pay, it permits no con- 
ference with flesh and blood, and it may mean 
the loss of all things, but it is the only way of 
power. We must relax our hold on the tran- 
sient if we would grasp the eternal things; 
we enter into joy by giving up pleasure; we 
must abdicate all the pomp and satisfactions of 
worldly power before we can be made vicars of 
omnipotence. 

“And who is sufficient for these things?” 
Love is sufficient, love alone is sufficient. This 
is the divine and mysterious energeia of all 
knowledge, of all service, of all surrender. We 
call God the Almighty, but what that means we 


60 The Minister and His Own Soul 


know only in terms of limitation. We know 
there are no limits to his power; we do not 
know at all the secret of the power. How can 
we ever understand the power that spake and 
it was done, that commanded and it stood fast 
in the creation of the world? What do we 
know of the power that keeps the stars in their 
courses, that binds the sweet influence of the 
Pleiades, that guides the distant suns in their 
solemn round through the Milky Way, that 
gathers the life-giving streams in the clouds 
and sends their refreshing vitality to the thirsty 
earth, that clothes the valleys with herbage and 
makes the hills laugh with waving corn. “Lo, 
these are but the outskirts of his ways: and 
how small a whisper do we hear of him! But 
the thunder of his power who can understand?” 
No, we know and can know none of these 
things, but we know the higher energy, nay, 
the highest. We do know that God is love, 
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can 
the floods drown it. Love is strong as death.” 
Love gave the Only Begotten. Love built the 
altar at Calvary. Love found me. Love sent 
me. Love is my apology, my power, my salary, 
my success, my crown of rejoicing. ‘Who shall 


The Energeia of Love 61 


separate us from the love of Christ? Shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or fa- 
mine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, 
in all these things we are more than conquerors 
through him that loved us.” 

Wherefore, beloved, let us repeat together 
our creed of creeds: 


Though I speak with the tongues of men 
and of angels, and have not love, I am be- 
come as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, 
and understand all mysteries, and all knowl- 
edge; and though I have all faith, so that I 
could remove mountains, and have not love, 
I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed 
the poor, and though I give my body to be 
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me 
nothing. 







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Pe OL POLS E OF PEACE 


“Also, let the peace of Christ be supreme within your hearts 
—that is why you have been called as members of the one 
Body.” 


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DV re POISE OR PEACE 


I would have supposed that of all the things 
a baseball player had to learn, he would know 
without teaching how to stand on his feet. But 
I read the other day that a certain player had 
greatly improved his batting by being taught 
_ how to stand at the plate. Likewise it appears 
that the first instruction given to those trying 
to learn to play golf is the stance, which among 
other things means how a player must stand 
when addressing the ball. Standing on one’s 
feet, then, appears to be not the simple, natural, 
untutored matter we assume it to be, but an 
art to be learned by persistent and intelligent 
practice. I have long observed the difficulties 
young people encounter in learning how to 
stand on their intellectual feet. I used to teach 
Logic, that is how I came to observe this. And 
I must confess that I have not been obliged to 
0 away from my own self-experience to notice, 
often with shame and confusion, what happens 


to a man when he loses what we call self-con- 
65 


66 The Minister and His Own Soul 


trol, or is unable to stand securely on his spir- 
itual feet. 

“God made man upright,” says the Preacher, 
“but they have sought out many inventions,” 
among which are falling down, crawling, stag- 
gering, and losing their balance generally and 
often. Losing one’s balance is always attended — 
with loss of power, and so in considering the 
secret of ministerial power I have thought we 
should look into this matter of balance, or, as I 
have called it in this chapter, poise. 

Have you ever thought of peace as poise? 
There is scarcely any word more commonly 
used in the Bible than “peace.” It has many 
varieties and grades of meaning. It is the com- 
mon form of greeting and farewell, uttered as 
lightly as our “good-bye,” and with as little 
consciousness of its real meaning. Frequently 
it is nothing more than a synonym for temporal 
prosperity, or health, or the attainment of one’s 
desires. In fact one may say that among Bibli- 
cal writers it is only on rare occasions of spir- 
itual exaltation that the deep spiritual signif- 
icance of the word is realized. 

But as Jesus took the elements of a simple 
meal and elevated them to become the solemn 


The Poise of Peace 67 


sacrament of his death, so he raised “peace” 
from an ordinary farewell to be his bequest, 
his last legacy of immortal love, “Peace I leave 
with you.” It is no light passing remark on the 
lips of Jesus. The whole atmosphere is charged 
with significance. He is not talking about the 
peace men think of so much, but “my peace I 
give unto you.” The very repetition is impres- 
sive. And to deepen the impression he suggests 
a contrast, “not as the world giveth,” not the 
sort of peace the world gives, nor given in the 
way the world gives, but my own peace, given 
in my own way, the real, abiding, satisfying 
peace. 

If Jesus deals in this solemn, impressive way 
with peace, it must be that our thoughts about 
it are inadequate if not often insincere. And 
as nothing really matters so much to us as to 
have right ideas about what Jesus regarded as 
his best gift to us, and which he declared was 
rest to our souls; and as rest of soul is real 
power of soul, it becomes our duty to apply 
ourselves earnestly to the study of peace, hop- 
ing thereby to gain further insight into this 
secret of ministerial power in the inner life. 

1. I think we should first rid ourselves of 


68 The Minister and His Own Soul 


the idea that we are making a true and com- 
prehensive notion of peace when we think of 
it negatively, as if it meant only the absence 
of strife, the discontinuance of war. On the 
other hand, peace is really one of the great con- 
structive forces in the world, and he who called 
himself the Prince of peace meant to be re- 
garded by us as the real king of all the real 
powers in the universe. Peace conquers men 
and will finally conquer the world, but not by 
making them static. A dead man fights no 
more; a dead world is no longer at war with 
heaven. But this is not a true picture of peace. 
Just to stop quarreling and fighting and hating 
is not necessarily to reach rest of soul. Life is 
nowhere static; as long as there is life there is 
energy, and as long as there is energy there 
must be movement, and peace is not to cease 
moving, any more than rest is to cease work- 
ing. Peace is poise, poise means weight, but 
not weight that crushes. It is the word from 
which we get our idea of balance, placing 
weights in opposite pans of a balance to coun- 
tervail one another. And peace is not inac- 
tion. It is activity so counterbalanced and ad- 


The Poise of Peace 69 


justed that friction is eliminated and rest se- 
cured by an equality of powers. 

In human affairs peace is secured not by put- 
ting all men to sleep, but rather by so adjusting 
certain elements of human activity that fric- 
tion is removed and the activity is orderly, co- 
ordinated and productive. If a wheel is not 
supported it can keep erect only by motion. 
And if we do not wish to quell all human ac- 
tivity we must adjust it and balance it so as to 
produce peace by its own movement. 

I would avoid the metaphysical, but you will 
pardon me if I go a little further with my 
definition. Three leading ideas, we might say, 
are present in all human activity. Variations 
are infinite, but all impulses to activity may be 
reduced to three: power, right and perfection. 
That is, we might say that an individual acts 
because or when he thinks, I can, I may, I 
must. These three elements of activity vary in 
amount and intensity in each individual, and 
sometimes one or two may appear in such small 
proportions as to be negligible. But when they 
are all present and in due proportion, a man’s 
activity will be easy, helpful and beautiful; and 
it will bring him peace, because he will be do- 


70 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ing what he thinks he is able to do, what he 
ought to do, and what he will find satisfaction 
of his ideal in doing. If either of these ele- 
ments is wanting, if he acts powerfully, but not 
rightly, he will not have peace. Or, if he acts 
rightly but fails in power he will fail in attain- 
ing peace. Or, if he acts powerfully and 
rightly, yet not in accordance with the beauti- 
ful ideal which says “must” to a man, he will 
not find peace. Peace, then, let us say, is the 
right adjustment of power to produce perfec- 
tion. This formula is applicable in a measure 
also to mechanical contrivances. Power in it- 
self is not enough; power may shatter the 
machine. Power must be controlled and ad- 
justed so that it will work, work being or- 
ganized power. And the work must not be 
aimless, the product must conform to the 
maker’s intention, to his ideal, otherwise it is 
wasted power. 

Now this is what Jesus promises to do for 
his disciples. He says, “All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye there- 
fore.” ‘And ye shall receive power after that 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Yet Jesus 
will not bestow this power indiscriminately or 


The Poise of Peace 71 


for frivolous purposes. His whole ministry on 
earth was a lesson to his disciples in the right 
use of power, not for themselves but accord- 
ing to the will of their Father in heaven. And 
finally he set before them the great ideal of 
their activity, which he called “salvation”; and 
he declared that when they had used this power 
for the production of this ideal in a right man- 
ner the inevitable result would be peace to them- 
selves. He gives us peace by giving us power 
to do his will. 

2. The worker’s poise. If it is true, then, 
that peace is not simply an unconnected, cause- 
less quietude of soul, but the result of the soul 
in action, it will be helpful to consider the 
worker in action and note the way he comes to 
peace. 

I suppose most of us, in reflecting upon our 
labors have had more reason to be ashamed of 
our frequent failures to preserve a proper bal- 
ance than of any other fault. The hasty words, 
the ill considered actions, the unjust judgments, 
have almost always been the result of being off 
our balance. And no wonder. It is a great 
achievement to learn how to walk; but to learn 
how to walk on a tight rope! what an achieve- 


72 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ment that is. But this is precisely what the 
minister has to learn. The minister is the 
leading man in his community, and what he says 
and what he does is always printed in large 
type. He isthe cynosure of all eyes. His opin- 
ions are broadcast and no static interferes to 
blur his mistakes. Naturally the minister 
comes in for a full share of criticism. If the 
congregation falls off, if the budget is not paid, 
if some member leaves the church, if the right 
officers are not elected, the minister is somehow 
held to blame. He is advised and cautioned and 
criticized until he is not sure he agrees with the 
Apostle who said, ‘There are, it may be, so 
many kinds of voices in the world, and none 
of them is without signification.” Mr. Lincoln 
once said to a committee waiting on him to tell 
him of his many omissions and commissions, 
“Gentlemen, if you gave your whole fortune to 
Blondin to carry across Niagara on a rope 
would you shout directions to him all the time 
and shake the rope? I am carrying a great 
treasure across this awful chasm of war. 
Don’t shake the rope.” 

Then the minister needs helpful co-workers 
and doesn’t always find them. He pleads, he 


The Poise of Peace 70 


exhorts, he rebukes, and still he is left to move 
the wheels of progress alone. What he doesn’t 
preach is not preached, and what he doesn’t do 
is not done. 

Added to all this is his sense of his own un- 
worthiness and inefficiency, which he often 
knows better than those who volunteer to tell 
him about it, and the awful issues depending on 
his leadership. Is it any wonder if he loses his 
balance, becomes discouraged, exasperated, 
hopeless? 

How may the minister in such circumstances 
maintain peace? I count myself the chief of 
sinners in this respect, and what I say on such 
a subject would be an assumption of arrogance 
except as you would be pleased to remember 
that I am in this point audience as well as 
speaker. But still I know, and so do you, no 
doubt, that there is only one way to maintain 
peace at such times. The minister must pray 
of course. He has a right to ask his Master 
to give him the promised peace. But he has no 
right to expect peace to come in any other than 
the natural, the logical way. Let him, then, 
after prayer remember the formula: peace, the 
result of the right adjustment of power to 


74. The Minister and His Own Soul 


produce perfection, and let him begin his ad- 
justment. Let him make sure that he is him- 
self adjusted to the true source of power. Let 
him adjust that power to the right sort of work, 
the work sanctioned and commanded by his 
Lord. And then let him aspire to the high 
ideal of a saved man, a saved church, a saved 
community, and he will find peace, peace that 
the world neither gives nor takes away. He 
can contemplate with serenity all the efforts 
to disturb his peace by evil wishers and igno- 
rant helpers. He can say with the old pilot on 
a stormy sea, “O Neptune, you may save me 
if you will, you may sink me if you can, but 
whatever happens I will keep my rudder true.” 
That is peace. 

How much time, how much labor is lost be- 
cause of the lack of poise. I don’t wish to speak 
disrespectfully of my class, but I sometimes 
think we are a sadly unbalanced class. Minis- 
ters get discouraged so quickly, get mad so 
quickly, get tired so quickly. Maybe we can 
render a reason for it in each case, but even 
that does not save the waste. We spend time 
in vain regrets over a poor sermon that would 
be enough to make a good one. We get so 


The Poise of Peace 73 


worked up in our zeal for a revival that we 
lose our balance and are not able to manage 
a revival when it comes. We display so much 
spleen over a conference disappointment that 
we are unfitted for the appointment we re- 
ceived. Getting nothing and losing balance. 
Don’t we know we can’t even walk until we 
balance ourselves? Why should we expect to 
work until we get mental and spiritual balance? 
And the fault is not in our stars but in our- 
selves why we are unbalanced. If I am run 
against and knocked down I am not to blame, 
unless I am jaywalking. But if my inner bal- 
ance is lost it is my fault. They tell us those 
curious semi-circular canals in our ears con- 
tain a fluid that enables us to balance our- 
selves physically, and if anything happens to 
obstruct those canals we are unable to stand 
upright at all. I know our spiritual balance 
is within us. We can get power, we can or- 
ganize our power to do right work, and we 
can hold fast to our beautiful ideals until we 
work out perfection. That is poise and poise is 
peace and peace is our promised heritage who 
seek to do our Lord’s will. 

3. The power in poise. Our Lord’s promise 


76 The Minister and His Own Soul 


of peace to us was, of course a blessing, one 
of the greatest rewards the worker has to look 
forward to. In the heaviest tasks and amid 
the stormiest weather we are privileged to think 
of a serene future, of a desired haven, of a 
peace that always comes at last and passes all 
understanding. But peace is not only that. 
Peace is not intended only to be reserved as our 
reward when work is done. It is given while 
we work, given for power, for effectiveness in 
producing results, for success. “This man shall 
be blessed in his doing.” Just as a man can 
play better ball when he learns how to balance 
himself at the plate, so a minister can do better 
work when he learns how to balance himself 
before his task. I have frequently seen in 
Court Rooms painted on the wall over the 
bench a figure of Justice with bandaged eyes 
and a balance evenly poised in her hand. The 
power of the Court is in that balance. We sub- 
mit to it because we believe justice is dispensed 
impartially, evenly. Perhaps it would not be 
an unsuitable symbol for the pulpit. Of course 
a preacher may reduce his ideas to such a dead 
level that his hearers can’t keep awake. But 
a great many sermons, I am persuaded, boil 


The Poise of Peace 77 


over and cook nothing. A speaker’s power is 
sometimes in what he doesn’t say. Proper re- 
straint both in matter and manner is power. 
Some preachers are eloquent in their pauses. 
Some are most impressive when they are most 
restrained. It is said that John Wesley seldom 
raised his voice above the conversational tone, 
or made a gesture, while many in his audience 
were being prostrated with overwhelming con- 
viction,. 

There is a good deal of what I know no 
better name for than belligerency in the pulpit 
that misses the mark. It is seldom effective 
and wastes a good deal of power of a sort. It 
is usually the indication of a loss of balance. 
Sometimes it has a less reputable source. The 
preacher finding it easier to attack somebody 
or something than to construct some idea of 
his own resorts to this energetic and indis- 
criminating pitching in as a substitute for hard 
work in his study. Sometimes a preacher is 
moved to attack a doctrine or a movement which 
he does not thoroughly understand, and thus 
exposes himself to the mortifying experience 
of being underrated in the pew by those who 
know he doesn’t know what he is talking about. 


78 The Minister and His Own Soul 


Sometimes belligerency is mere excitement, 
“vox et praeterea miul.” All of it seems to 
me asad mistake. If a preacher is convinced 
he puts his emphasis most effectively in his 
thought; if he is not convinced he had better 
keep silent. Belligerency in the pulpit is quite 
prevalent just now, to be sure, but for all that 
it is not force but the contrary; it is an equal 
lack of poise and of power. “He shall not 
strive nor cry,” was prophesied of the model 
preacher. “To contend earnestly for the faith 
once delivered to the saints’ is an inspired ex- 
hortation to which we must be faithful, but 
it has suffered many things from a bad exegesis 
and a worse application. But the preacher 
should always 1emember that by custom and 
courtesy he is the sole speaker, no one can reply 
to anything he chooses to say, and that in itself 
puts him under the obligation of the Golden 
Rule. Nor does his zeal for the true faith 
warrant the heat, the extravagance and the in- 
tolerance which so often distinguish this sort 
of preaching. It does not lead to peace, it 
seldom convinces anybody, and it indicates loss 
of balance in the preacher which is generally 
equivalent to loss of power. 


The Poise of Peace 79 


It does not lead to peace; I wonder what it 
does lead to. I have often thought if the 
preacher was to be taken seriously just where 
and to what lengths he would be ready to carry 
out his manner. Logically it would land him 
in strange company sometimes. I came across 
some doggerel verses not long ago, illustrating 
the real belligerent contender for the faith, 
which I laid away among my private instruc- 
tions in pulpit manner and method. They are 
not quite in the spirit of this discussion, but I 
hope you will pardon that for the sake of the 
good moral attached. They are entitled, ‘“The- 
ology in Camp” and were written by Clarence 
Henry Pearson. 


“T was on the drive in ’sixty, workin’ under 
Silver Jack— 

Which the same is now in Jackson & aint soon 
expected back; 

There was a chap among us, by the name of 
Robert Waite, 

Who was kinder slick and tonguey—I guess a 
graduate. 


Bob could gab on any subject, from the Bible 
down to Hoyle; 


80 The Minister and His Own Soul 


And his words flowed out so easy, just as 
smooth and slick as oil. 

He was what they called a skeptic, & he loved to 
sit & weave 

Highfalutin words together, sayin’ what he 
didn’t believe. 


One day, as we was waitin’ for a flood to clear 
the ground, 

We all sat smokin’ niggerhead, & hearin’ Bob 
expound :— 

Hell, he said was a humbug, & he proved as 
clear as day 

That the Bible was a fable;—we allowed it 
looked that way. 


As fer miracles and sech like, ’twas more than 
he could stan’; 

And for him they call the Saviour, he was just 
a common man. 

“You're a liar,” shouted someone, ‘“& you’ve got 
to take that back.” 

Then ev’ rybody started—’twas the voice of 
Silver Jack! 


Jack clicked his fists together & he shucked 
his coat and cried, 


The Poise of Peace 81 


’Twas by that thar religion my Mother lived 
& died: 

And though I haven’t always used the Lord 
exactly right 

When I hear a chump abuse him, he must eat 
his words or fight. 


Now Bob he warn’t no coward, & he answered 
bold & free, 

“Stack your duds & cut your capers, for you'll 
find no flies on me.” 

And they fit for forty minutes, & the boys 
would hoot and cheer, 

When Jack choked up a tooth or two, & Bob 
he lost an ear. 


At last Jack got Bob under, & he slugged him 
onst or twiced, 

Till Bob at last admitted the Divinity of Christ. 

Still Jack kept reasonin’ with him, till the cuss 
began to yell, 

And allowed he’d been mistaken in his views 
concernin’ hell. 


Thus that controversy ended, & they riz up 
from the ground, 

And someone found a bottle & kindly passed 
it ’round. 


82 The Minister and His Own Soul 


And we drank to Jack’s religion in a quiet sort 
of way ;— 

So the spread of infidelity was checked in Camp 
that day.” 


It is not so serious a matter as belligerency, 
but I want to say another word about boister-_ 
ousness in the pulpit, which I think is an enemy 
to peace and therefore to power. The boister- 
ous preacher is seldom convincing. There is 
a limit to the volume of sound which the human 
ear will react to. Speakers go beyond that limit 
at the price of not being understood. I have 
frequently heard speakers shout themselves 
hoarse and the people deaf. Not one word in 
ten could be distinguished. That is not a right 
adjustment of power to produce a beautiful 
ideal. It is just noise, and not a joyful noise 
either. But the upset of mental and spiritual 
poise is a more serious effect of such preaching. 
No man talking in that fashion can use his mind 
effectively. Beecher was once asked what he 
did when he lost his connections and for the 
moment became mentally confused in the pulpit. 
He replied, “I holler like the mischief.” It is 
not an exceptional case. I suspect that usually 


The Poise of Peace 83 


we do the least thinking when we are making 
the most noise. But whether that be true or 
not, it must be a serious disturbance to the 
preacher’s poise. 

One other case invites brief attention. There 
are some preachers who deserve the name of 
“fussy.” They seem to take for their motto: 
“T am pastor, and nothing goes on in this pas- 
torate without me.” They are not content to 
let anything be done without the touch of their 
euiding, controlling hand. They must plan and 
direct the finances of the church, although they 
have members of large business capacity and 
experience. They must superintend the Sun- 
day School, show the women how to run an 
Aid Society, or a Missionary Society, keep the 
building in repair, lead the choir, and, take on 
a hundred other details, so that the members 
feel that there is not one thing they are allowed 
to do absolutely by themselves and without in- 
terference. Of course such a pastor is always 
off his balance. No man can carry such a 
heterogeneous load easily and safely. He is 
bound to stumble walk warily as he may. He 
becomes the source of confusion instead of 
peace, and lands himself and his flock into a 


84 The Minister and His Own Soul 


constant series of church quarrels disturbing 
their peace and his. 

It must be most difficult for “the peace of 
Christ to reign supreme in our hearts” under 
such conditions. Our weapons are not carnal, 
we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our 
mission is to make peace, we ourselves are com- 
manded to be examples of peace, our power is 
in peace. So we who have to fight in the good 
fight of faith must not lose our mental poise 
and confuse the issue we are fighting about. 
We must not at any cost lose our spiritual poise 
and hate harder than we fight. We must not 
lose our professional poise and get in the way 
of those we are commissioned to give tasks to. 
We should rather rejoice in having found a 
more excellent way, the way of our Divine ex- 
ample, the way of adjusting our power to the 
production of beautiful ideals. If the idea of 
a contest gets associated in our minds too closely 
with our ministry, we must not forget the in- 
junction of the Apostle: “Let the peace of 
Christ be the umpire in your hearts,” as the 
word rendered “‘supreme” suggests. What he 
would have must be our aim. In a contest 
under him as umpire we shall arrive at some- 


The Poise of Peace 85 


thing better than victory. In the shining armor 
of love we will go forth as soldiers of a new 
freedom, a new tolerance. ‘For thus saith the 
Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In confidence 
and quietness shall be your strength.”’ We shall 
be armored with heavenly weapons, and kept 
steady with heavenly peace, and be able always 
to fight as soldiers of the Cross, unimbittered, 
undiscouraged, and unafraid, Because this is 
our panoply: 


Peace I leave with you, 

My peace I give unto you: 
Not as the world giveth 

Give I unto you. 

Let not your heart be troubled, 
Neither let 1t be afraid. 


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V: OPTIMISM 


“And you must be thankful. Let the inspiration of Christ 
dwell in your midst with all its wealth of wisdom: teach and 
train one another with the music of psalms, with hymns, and 
songs of the spiritual life: praise God with thankful hearts. 
Indeed, whatever you say or do, let everything be done in 
dependence on the Lord Jesus, giving thanks in his name to 
God the Father.” 


cy 





V: OPTIMISM 


I do not know how it has come about, but 
this word optimism has furnished a great deal 
of fun for the paragraphers in newspapers, so 
that hardly any one uses it for any serious pur- 
pose any more. I suppose most persons regard 
it as the word of an extremist who does not 
deserve serious consideration. However it is 
a good word and expresses one of the finest 
and most helpful qualities of the human soul. 
It was first used in philosophy for the very 
pious purpose of maintaining and expressing 
the thesis that God having made this world, 
and being perfectly good and perfectly power- 
ful, it must be the best of all possible worlds. 
When it began to be used to denote a philosophy 
of life it conveyed the same idea, that God hav- 
ing ordered our life it must be the best pos- 
sible life for us, or at any rate the wisest 
philosophy was to make the best of it. Within 
the limits of this definition it would seem that 


every believer in God would be an optimist. 
89 


90 The Minister and His Own Soul 


There is nothing extravagant in such a philoso- 
phy, there is nothing derogatory to the sanest 
intellect in such a belief, there is certainly noth- 
ing funny init. Of all men the minister might 
reasonably be expected to be an optimist. He 
ought to be the most hopeful of men, the man 
least discouraged by any present conditions and 
most serene about those to come. If any man 
has reason for being optimistic, he more. He 
believes that he has omnipotent power behind 
him in what he is trying to do. He believes 
that he has been sent on a mission of unspeak- 
able importance to the human race, that the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ which he has been com- 
missioned to preach is of God and will ulti- 
mately prevail against all opposition, and is now 
prevailing everywhere, when it is given a 
chance, over sin and ignorance and sorrow. 
He believes that he has the only remedy for 
all the spiritual ills of mankind, that he is priv- 
ileged to offer this remedy to all men without 
discrimination and without price, and he has 
testimony every day that this remedy is healing 
men and nations and bringing in peace and hap- 
piness and healing to the world. He believes 
that when he does all he can to succeed in his 


Optimism Ql 


mission, his lack of power or of efficiency makes 
no difference; when he does all he can to find 
the truth and preach the truth, his ignorance 
and misconception and prejudice make no dif- 
ference; when he gives all he can, which is all 
he has, his lack of wealth or talent or position 
makes no difference. He will succeed anyhow, 
his cause will triumph anyhow, the Gospel will 
be true even if he is a liar, the kingdom will 
come although he dies, and Christ will be 
proven to be the power of God unto salvation 
although his messenger be weak and unworthy 
and of stammering lips. Not an optimist, but 
the optimist, the preacher of Jesus should be; 
cheerfullest worker on earth; no union rules 
about hours, no disputes over wages, no lay-offs 
on account of lack of orders, no dissatisfaction 
with the Firm, no strikes, no black list; what 
an optimist the preacher should be! 

And yet I heard a man say the other day that 
he had stopped attending church because the 
preacher was so depressing. It made him feel 
as if he was attending a funeral, the face of the 
preacher looked like it, the voice of the preacher 
sounded like it, and the whole service was 
gloom, thick, unbroken gloom. What was the 


92 The Minister and His Own Soul 


matter with that preacher? I knew the critic 
pretty well, he was no capable critic of sermons, 
he did not know half as much as the preacher, 
I felt sure; and yet I could not dispute his 
assertion that he knew enough to know when 
he felt depressed. Why does not the preaching 
of the glorious Gospel of the Son of God make 
every hearer feel glad? And why does not 
every preacher, direct successor of the angelic 
host over the Bethlehem plain announcing glad 
tidings of great joy which shall be to all people, 
why does not every preacher always feel glad 
to preach, and look glad? And why did not 
that particular preacher impress that ordinary, 
unscholarly critic, just slipping in to hear a 
sermon for his dead mother’s sake and in sub- 
mission to a habit of his childhood, that he was 
glad to preach a Gospel of gladness that will 
make everybody in the whole world glad? I 
don’t know, but he didn’t. 

And why are thousands of preachers libelling 
this Gospel of glad tidings by sour looks and 
discouraging words as if they were prophets 
of doom, lawyers of the law, scolders, whiners, 
pessimists? Why do they doit? They get no 
power out of it. They get no success out of it, 


Optimism 93 


congregations get smaller all the time. They 
get no satisfaction out of it, unless it be the 
satisfaction of an abnormal nature. They 
don’t have to do it, not all the time, certainly, 
for the voice that commanded them to cry aloud 
and spare not also commanded, “Comfort ye 
my people.” If they do it because they like it, 
why do they like it? I don’t know but they do. 

The Apostle thinks every Christian should 
be. an optimist, and of all Christians the 
preacher should set the example. The Apostle 
makes a great deal of this quality in the pas- 
sage we are meditating upon. The paragraph 
we are now considering is the longest text we 
have had from the whole passage. He says it 
is a duty, “you must be thankful,” and he out- 
lines a scheme for its cultivation and expression 
that will form a habit so that everything we say 
or do will be beautified with thankfulness and 
praise. 

The word “thankful” in this verse comes 
from the very ancient custom of giving thanks 
at the beginning of meals, which even the 
heathen very generally practice. That was the 
first thing Jesus did in instituting the Lord’s 
Supper, and so it was frequently spoken of as 


94. The Minister and His Own Soul 


the Eucharist, that being the Greek word for 
giving thanks. And so Saint Paul says we 
ought to make our whole life a Eucharist, 
“whatever you say or do, let it be done giving 
thanks to God.” What a beautiful and signifi- 
cant derivation, that this spirit of thankfulness 
should come from that memorable act of our 
Lord. What a beautiful and significant habit, 
to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in all our ac- 
tions and in all our words! Is it not worth 
while for all ministers to know more about this 
blessing? 

1. As to its rank among other duties and 
requirements of the minister some would give 
thankfulness a rather lowly place. They would 
say the minister must be holy of course, he must 
be humble and lowly in heart, of an unselfish 
and a sacrificing spirit, a skilled student of the 
Word, a faithful pastor and teacher. No one 
failing in these requirements would be regarded 
as qualified for the ministry. But when it is 
added, and he must be thankful, there is not 
the same sense of importance, the requirements 
seem to have dropped to a lower level. Weare 
apt to think that if a man is lacking in this 
quality it is only one of several instances 


Optimism 05 
wherein all of us come short of perfection, 
which of course is to be expected. 

Now I am not thinking of making any com- 
parison among the qualities which go to make 
up a good minister. That would be a most 
invidious task and profitless. But on the other 
hand I cannot think we should depreciate a 
quality which the Apostle emphasizes in the 
way he does in this and in many other passages. 
. I would have no difficulty in filling a page with 
references from his writings encouraging and 
even commanding us to be thankful, to praise, 
to rejoice, to be glad in the Lord. Surely this 
Apostle who was “in labors more abundant, in 
stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
quent, in deaths oft’ could speak with the au- 
thority of experience, if any man could, about 
“finishing his course with joy.” With all his 
labors and all his hardships, no apostle had 
more to say about joy and gladness. “Joy” is 
found sixty-two times in the New Testament, 
and Saint Paul uses it twenty-eight of those 
times. “Thankful” is found sixty-nine times, 
and Saint Paul uses it forty-eight of those 
times. It was not just a passing remark of 
his, therefore, when he places in this list of 


96 The Minister and His Own Soul 


Christian duties, “you must be thankful.” And 
a higher authority puts this quality of cheer- 
fulness as the antidote to the hard experiences 
Christians were sure to meet in the service of 
the Master. “In the world ye shall have tribu- 
lation, but be of good cheer.” ‘So far from 
being unimportant we should rather regard 
thankfulness as the blessed lubricant making 
hardship endurable and all the machinery of 
service work smoothly and successfully. 

2. Another erroneous notion about thank- 
fulness must be mentioned. Some persons seem 
to have the idea that thankfulness is a natural 
endowment which those who possess it may 
rejoice in, but about which those who do not 
happen to have it need not trouble themselves. 
This is quite wrong. It is true that some per- 
sons are of a hopeful temperament and are 
therefore more easily thankful than others, but 
it must not be forgotten that thankfulness can 
be cultivated and that a gloomy countenance 
and an ungracious manner of speech are often 
mere habit. Indeed the verb in this verse sug- 
gests this idea and might be translated, “you 
must become thankful.” Thankfulness is a 
state of mind. To be thankful is to be in a 


Optimism 07 


certain state of mind with regard to things, 
and to be depressed or discouraged is to be in 
a certain other state of mind. They who dwell 
much on themselves, who are self-centered as 
we say, who are always thinking more of their 
rights than of their duties, absorbed in their 
enjoyments more than in their employments, 
are dissatisfied because their mind is misdi- 
rected. They who dwell on what others have 
and they might have but do not, and how much 
more they could do if they had more, might 
turn their peevishness into thankfulness by 
turning their mind upon how much they have 
and how unworthy they are to have more. 

Now it is possible for us to cease thinking 
of certain things and to think of others; to cease 
regarding certain aspects of things as impor- 
tant, neglecting all other aspects, and to make 
a wider and a wiser comparison of things. Be- 
coming thus converted mentally, our whole in- 
tellectual point of view being changed, it will 
follow that our emotional state will be likewise 
converted from dissatisfaction to contentment, 
we will cease to complain and become thankful. 
The Pollyana spirit is just now unfashionable, 
I know, and subject to a good deal of scorn 


98 The Minister and His Own Soul 


from newspaper satirists, but it is nevertheless 
psychologically correct, and religiously much 
more becoming than its opposite. 

3, I think Saint Paul is recognizing this psy- 
chology when he adds the words about the 
method, or at least one method, for cultivating 
thankfulness: “teach and train one another 
with the music of psalms, with hymns, and 
songs of the spiritual life.” 

After getting the thankful state of mind we 
must learn the vocabulary of thankfulness. It 
happens sometimes that we reverse the process 
and become thankful by using the vocabulary, 
but neither is complete without the other. 

And what a vocabulary of praise is given us 
in the Psalms! Every object in creation, every 
event in human life, every experience of the 
human soul is traversed with praise. Thank- 
fulness is sung in every key and to every meas- 
ure, the book closing with a ringing cataract of 
praise, six short verses and thirteen hallelujahs 
bespangling the emotional sky like a Niagara 
spray of sparkling thanksgivings. If the min- 
ister made it the rule of his life to read a psalm 
every morning his prayers would take on a dif- 
ferent complexion. And if he would add to 


Optimism 99 


this routine, as John Wesley did, the singing 
of a hymn, his morning devotions would give 
a radiance to the day of labor and perplexity 
that no one could fail to notice. 

And then, after inducing the thankful mind 
and acquiring the thankful vocabulary, comes 
the expression of thankfulness in speech, in 
countenance and in act. Let the minister read 
his psalms aloud, let him sing his hymns aloud, 
let him accustom his ear to the sound of thank- 
fulness. Yes, singing. A good heart has 
more to do with singing than a good voice. I 
insist that everybody can sing well enough to 
fill the requirements of praise. And let him 
train his countenance to express gladness. 
That’s what mirrors are for. If some men 
would get better acquainted with their counte- 
nances they would get as tired of them as be- 
holders do and transform them into the like- 
ness of one who has had a great joy. Finally, 
let him practice a cheerful behavior, stop find- 
ing fault with the universe, stop pitying him- 
self, act as though this was a good world and 
a good time, the world and the time of a good 
God to whom be glory forever and ever. 

Now I realize that this is not a program as 


: 
100 The Minister and His Own Soul 


easy to execute as it is to outline. The min- 
ister who has to be so much in the public eye 
has an enormous difficulty added to his task 
in being thrust out of privacy just when his 
own heart may be burdened with a personal 
sorrow or trouble. Neither do I mean that he 
must always be feigning a cheerfulness he does 
not feel and become at last insincere. I cannot 
bear the professional glad-hander. But this 
thankfulness may be put on if first we put in, 
as the Apostle suggests, “the inspiration of 
Christ with all its wealth of wisdom.” The 
Apostle is not asking us to do the impossible, 
the insincere thing, nor expecting us to achieve 
the superhuman thing with our merely human 
powers. He is offering us an all-sufficient help 
to transform our inner nature and produce in 
the barren soil of human nature the fragrance 
and loveliness of the Christ nature. 

“The inspiration of Christ.” There is the 
powerful alchemy of this spiritual transforma- 
tion. Before Christ came the prospect was 
dreary enough. The world was old and grown 
weary. Men’s hearts fainted in them because 
of the long-delayed promise of his coming, and 
the national, social and religious outlook was 


Optimism 101 


depressing. The prophetic voice had been long 
stilled, and no fulfillment was apparently at 
hand. There seemed to be nothing to inspire 
cheerfulness, 

But a new day was ushered in with a burst of 
song that was caught up by human tongues and 
has ever since been characteristic of this re- 
ligion. “Break forth into joy, sing together, ye 
waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath 
visited and redeemed his people” was the exult- 
ant invitation to all the weary, all the hopeless 
peoples of the world. The inspiration of Christ 
is the inspiration of joy and the supporter of 
joy. Almost the last word of Jesus was his 
promise to be with us always. In view of what 
is thus offered us and what may be accom- 
plished by the humblest individual, do we not, 
my brethren, prove ourselves unfaithful and 
ungrateful if we go on with our old limitations 
and imperfections and fail to produce the 
blessed intention of this promise, cheerfulness, 
good courage and thankfulness? Will we dare 
to walk with Him, as He promised we might 
through all the days, and show ourselves peev- 
ish, discontented, gloomy? Can we be worthy 
companions of Him who endured the cross, de- 


102 The Minister and His Own Soul 


spising the shame, if we constantly faint and 
complain, see no brightness, know no joy, ex- 
perience no delight, expect no triumph? If we 
can do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth us can we not through him also 
be thankful? 

4. My last remark is only for the purpose 
of trying to bring to some practical effect what 
I have already said. Thankfulness is a beauti- 
ful grace, pleasing to God and acceptable to 
men; and that is reason enough for cultivating 
it. But it is also a wonderful reservoir of 
power to the minister. 

It is true of every worker in a measure that 
a discontented worker is a poor worker; but a 
discontented minister is an encumbrance. He 
is not only gloomy himself but he is a cause of 
gloom in others. He sees so many difficulties 
and so clearly that he is defeated before he 
starts and convinces his people that it is no use 
to start. He kills the prayer-meeting by scold- 
ing the few present for the many absent. He 
never raises the budget because he has per- 
suaded his people that it is too much for them 
to undertake. He makes poor sermons because 
he is convinced beforehand that he will have a 


Optimism 103 


small congregation to preach to. He is never 
disappointed about anything because every- 
thing is always fully as bad as he expected. 
In all his activities power has gone out of him, 
and while he is pitying himself as a martyr his 
people are pitying themselves for having to 
listen to a perpetual grouch. 

A much better type of minister is he who, 
while not what might be called cheerful, takes 
up his task with a grim determination to do his 
_ duty come what may. He has no joy, he is not 
enthusiastic, he knows the difficulties confront- 
ing him, but he is loyal to his Master and to 
his church and gives what strength he has to 
his task up to the last minute of his appoint- 
ment. I think we all feel a degree of admira- 
tion for a man like this, and yet we know that 
he is not the highest type, he has not the in- 
spiration of Christ with all its wealth of wis- 
dom. For there is no forlorn hope to be led 
in the cause of Christ. The man who has no 
strength but the strength that comes from a 
sense of duty is not enjoying the power that 
Christ intended all his disciples to have. He 
is not even running with patience the race set 


104 The Minister and His Own Soul 


before him. He is running in low gear and, 
as usual, making a lot of noise doing it. 

Still I am greatly interested in this class of 
minister. The peevish, discontented minister 
we need not consider. There is nothing better 
to say to him than to quote the words of 
Gideon: ‘Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let 
him return and depart early.’ But I have 
sympathy for this duty-power minister, and I 
want to tell him what I think is the secret of 
his lack of power and joy. 

The beginning of all action is an impulse, 
what we call in our physical organism, nerve 
force. Nobody understands its secret, but 
everything else in our body is inert and would 
remain inert without the impulse from this 
nerve force. The bones and the muscles may 
all be in perfect condition but they have no more 
power of action in themselves than so many 
sticks and strings. Then this inertia is broken 
up suddenly and action begins. What did it? 
All we can say is that we had a thought, and 
in some mysterious way the thought excited 
the nerve and the nerve sent an impulse to the 
muscles and the muscles grasped the bones and 
the bones started into activity. A man weigh- 


Optimism 105 


ing one hundred and fifty pounds has that much 
weight to place in overcoming anything weigh- 
ing less or in resisting anything weighing more. 
We call that his dead weight. But his dead 
weight is a very different thing from his energy. 
Physically a man may be a runt who in a fight 
is a wild cat. Muscular effort reénforced by 
nerve impulse enables a man of a hundred and 
fifty pounds to exert a pressure of three hun- 
dred, five hundred pounds, because a living man 
is more than a dead weight, he has a push. 

Now this gladness, the exhilaration of spirit 
we call optimism, is something like the physical 
man’s push added to his dead weight. To all 
the other concomitants of action, making up 
his mind, determining his course, calculating 
his chances, and so forth, comes this optimism 
adding a push. It is the pitcher winding up, 
not only getting his muscles free, but liberating 
nervous energy for his push. It is the runner 
making his take-off. 

Now the marvellous thing about Christ as a 
Master and Leader is his power to liberate in 
us that spiritual exaltation which enables us to 
discount difficulties and hardships, to glory in 
afflictions and indignities we endure for his 


106 The Minister and His Own Soul 


sake, to ignore opponents and enemies, and to 
count it all joy when he assigns us the hardest 
task, as though he decorated us. This is some- 
thing more than a sense of duty, it is more 
even than what we call enthusiasm, it is opti- 
mism, it is the indefinable swing of spirit that 
exalts doing and suffering into glorying in the 
cross. It is the inspiration of Christ dwelling 
in us with all its wealth of wisdom. 

So, dear brother, laboring so hard under 
your sense of duty, your Lord has a better 
thing in store for you. He does not intend 
you to be reckoned solely by your dead weight. 
He intends you to count for more than your 
learning, your industry, your loyalty, your 
faithfulness; you are to count for your inspira- 
tion. If the inspiration of Christ dwells in 
you, if you have been energized by the Holy 
Spirit and raised to the power of a glad, en- 
thusiastic optimism, ‘“‘one shall chase a thou- 
sand and two put ten thousand to flight”; your 
power will be reckoned by your push; your own 
enthusiasm will kindle that of others, your own 
power will be multiplied by your companions, 
you will mount up on wings as eagles, you will 
run and not be weary, walk and not faint, 


Optimism 107 


“Laugh at impossibilities 
And cry, it shall be done.” 


Panting towards the goal with every advance 
gained, and faith kindled into assurance of 
victory by every battle won, you will sweep to 
your task as in a chariot of fire, “from hence- 
forth expecting until his enemies be made his 
footstool.” Therefore, 


Praise ye the Lord. 

Praise God in H1s sanctuary 

Praise Him in the firmament of His power. 

Pratse Him for His mighty acts; 

Praise Him according to His excellent great- 
NESS. 

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet: 

Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. 

Praise Him with the tumbrel and dance; 

Praise Him with stringed instruments and 
organs. 

Praise Him upon the loud cymbals; 

Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. 

Let everything that hath breath praise the 
Lord. 

Praise ye the Lord. 


ate ha Ra Ae tan 


’ ‘ 


aS a 


A , Jas 
1% rat 4 } 


hi ;i@ feats my 7 eae e f 
ae eh ye uae Ait 
ret Ly! * ae bad ny, ane ‘teaes 

yt 9, ‘es bs fi 


oie 


a! 
1 
‘ ’ 


‘ 





VI: SAINT PAUL’S SCHEME FOR 
MINISTERIAL CULTURE 


The Text 


2 CORINTHIANS, Vi: 3-13. 


Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: 

But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, 
in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 

In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watch- 
ings, in fastings; 

By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by 
the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 

By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of 
righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 

By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as 
deceivers, and yet true; 

As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we 
live; as chastened, and not killed; 

As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many 
rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is 
enlarged. 

Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own 
bowels. 

Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my chil- 
dren) be ye also enlarged, 


VI: SAINT PAUL’S SCHEME FOR 
MINISTERIAL CULTURE 


There is a rubric in music which reads, 
“Largo.” Although it is not easy to translate 
in a word, we have no difficulty in understand- 
ing what it means. We do not expect to find 
it attached to dance music, or to the jingles with 
which some so-called revival hymns are swung. 
It belongs to music of the grand style, like the 
Hallelujah Chorus, or the Trisagion in the Re- 
demption. It is the large movement of sublime 
sounds and swelling harmonies. Such a rubric 
ought to be written at the top of every sermon 
page. For he who undertakes to speak as the 
ambassador of Jesus Christ ought always to 
feel even if he does not always use the grand 
style. 

It is related of Michael Angelo that, calling 
one day at Raphael’s studio he took a crayon 
and drew a circle about one of Raphael’s un- 
finished drawings, and wrote underneath the 


word, “Amplius.”’ An art lecture in one word; 
II!I 


112 The Minister and His Own Soul 


more scope, larger vision, freer range, and a 
pencil that can sweep. This too, I think, ought 
to be on every preacher’s Bible, that with the 
broad technique, he might also have the ampler 
inner scope of mental and spiritual vision and 
be, in both respects, enlarged. 

Much is being said in these days of the need 
for a broader culture for ministers of the Gos- 
pel. They have friends as well as critics who 
feel that the preparation for this great work 
has not kept pace with the progress in other 
callings. They earnestly desire to see enlarge- 
ment beyond the traditions of the elders who 
thought the Bible and the Hymn-book a suff- 
cient library; and beyond the present Theologi- 
cal Seminary curriculum whose narrow way 
does not always lead to intellectual life. The 
culture of the pulpit has long been the target 
of critics. Lord Morley does not hesitate to 
declare of the clergy as a class: “They vow 
almost before they have crossed the threshold 
of manhood that they will search no more. 
They virtually swear that they will to the end of 
their days believe what they believe then, be- 
fore they have had time to think, or to know 
the thoughts of others.” However this re- 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 113 


proach may apply to those who subscribe to 
the thirty-nine articles on entering the ministry 
of the Church of England, it will certainly fail 
as applied to American preachers of any de- 
nomination, so far as changing their beliefs is 
concerned. We are not subject to that limita- 
tion in our culture, although it is questionable 
whether it is more culture or less that makes 
us so unstable. Yet it is a fact that I think few 
would question, that our preachers in many in- 
stances do sentence themselves to perpetual 
mental sterility by completing their education 
with graduation. They read henceforth if at 
all in the most desultory fashion, and content 
themselves with preaching on Sunday without 
worrying themselves to make sermons during 
the week. Many never read except to find ma- 
terial for sermons, and then confine themselves 
to popular commentaries and selections of illus- 
trations. They have a certain tale of bricks to 
make and they scatter abroad throughout all 
the land to gather stubble for straw. Such 
men do not enlarge, and after the first few 
years of yeasty youth old age comes upon them 
suddenly and without a remedy or a solace. 
They know no more than they knew in the be- 


114 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ginning, and they have lost interest in what 
they know. 

Stung by the reproach and warned by the 
example of these idle brethren in the ministry, 
there are others who exhibit a restlessness and 
a dissatisfaction which render them unfit for 
anything but preparation. They spend a large 
portion of their life in getting ready for their 
life work. They seem unable to get done with 
colleges and universities and seminaries; heap- 
ing up degrees upon degrees, climbing from 
glory to glory, feverish with a thirst which 
seems only to stimulate itself by its satisfac- 
tions, 


“Insatiate to the spring they fly, 
They drink and yet are ever—dry.” 


Do these men need the exhortation to be en- 
larged? It may seem strange to them, but I 
feel that the exhortation was written especially 
for them, and I am trying to fit it to their case. 
The most distressing narrowness in our min- 
istry to-day is not among the illiterate or the 
lazy, but among the ambitious and so-called 
cultured class. And as the results of preach- 
ing must rest finally with the ambitious and 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 115 


cultured preachers I feel that if enlargement 
fails to win its way with these we are doomed 
to failure in the best results. 

Nothing must be said or understood that will 
leave the impression of depreciating the broad- 
est and profoundest mental culture for the 
Christian preacher. Yet it will not be amiss to 
suggest that this is not all. A really broad 
man must be something more than a cultivated 
scholar, admirable as that individual is. A 
really broad man cannot be made by constant 
and exclusive stimulation of the intellectual 
nature. Nothing is more likely to prove disas- 
trous in attempting to enlarge a cylinder than 
to press too hard on one part. And if it is 
enlargement and not rupture we are seeking 
we must keep the pressure equal on all sides. 
The “all-round” man is a complicated product, 
not possible from a culture that confines itself 
to learning things, or to doing things, or even 
to being something; but by pressing all these: 
equally in the unity of a great ideal, which 
issues at last in a perfect man. 

What else is there then in culture besides 
mental growth? What is it that appeals to 
the intellectual disciple and bids him enlarge? 


116 The Minister and His Own Soul 


It is experience. It is what the Scriptures 
mean by life. It is what Jesus declared he 
came to give us more abundantly. It is what 
Saint Paul sets forth in the text and prescribes 
the curriculum for, and declares that without 
it the grace of God will be received in vain. I 
must ask you, therefore, to read with me this 
sixth chapter of the second epistle of Corin- 
thians with the view of getting the Apostle’s 
point of view, and as the foundation of the 
remarks I have to make on the preacher’s en- 
largement. 

We have been careful as the ministers of 
God, he says, to give no occasion of stumbling 
in anything, that our ministry be not blamed, 
establishing the true apostolic succession of his 
ministry, so to speak; but in everything com- 
mending ourselves in much steadfastness. And 
he then proceeds to outline the curriculum 
through which he has passed to a graduation 
that enables him to say with confidence, “O 
Corinthians, our heart is enlarged.” I cannot 
but think there is something modern in all this. 
If we read over this logically arranged course 
of study it must interest us and thrill us to think 
that this is no accident that just happened to 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 117 


Saint Paul. This is what gave him his marvel- 
ous enlargement, that transformed such an one 
as Saul of Tarsus, the narrow, bigoted, mur- 
derous ‘‘Pharisee of the Pharisees” into the 
broad-visioned missionary to the Gentiles and 
the very chiefest of the Apostles. Such a 
transformation is a miracle of grace, and not 
less a miracle of development, but it is a miracle 
not without cause and it is still possible to hum- 
ble faith and earnest endeavor where one is 
willing to pay the price. There must be a great 
challenge in it for those not steeped in egotism 
and who aspire for the broadest culture of the 
sincerest sort. 

The specification and arrangement of what 
I have ventured to call “Saint Paul’s Scheme 
for ministerial culture” will be found to be con- 
secutive and exhaustive. It embraces three 
divisions, each subdivided into groups, and all 
prefaced by a comprehensive quality on which 
all depends. Each division is homogeneous and 
leads up to the following, making the whole 
scheme progressive and culminating, strikingly 
similar to what one may find in a modern uni- 
versity catalogue. 

The preface, or introductory study of the 


118 The Minister and His Own Soul 


course, as we might call it, is as follows: “In 
everything commending ourselves as ministers 
of God, with much patience,” or steadfastness. 
This word steadfastness is the key to the whole 
course. The long and difficult process to 
achieve the great result of the broadest culture 
for ministers is not to be undertaken without a 
persistent, determined course in steadfastness. 
It takes time; it takes patience; it takes a con- 
stant remembrance of our Lord’s words, “He 
that taketh not up his cross, and followeth after 
me, is not worthy of me.” 

After this preface we have three groups of 
words, three in each, which mark out the first 
division of this course in experience: 


I. In afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 
2. In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
3. In labors, in watchings, in fastings. 


The first of these trinities outlines the nat- 
ural and necessary sphere in which Saint Paul’s 
life moved as a minister of Christ. The second 
outlines experiences unnecessary, and, except 
for a perverse generation, unnatural, due to the 
active hostility of those the Apostle was trying 
to serve as a preacher of the cross. The third 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 119 


outlines his experience in the actual perform- 
ance of his work; not necessary, nor inflicted by 
others, but voluntarily assumed by him as the 
legitimate program for the conscientious dis- 
charge of his duty as he saw it. 

As to the first of these experiences, the life 
of Saint Paul, on its human side, was the life, 
of a poor man, a life of many privations, of 
continually straitened resources, of distress- 
ing needs. The three words describing it are 
suggestive. “Afflictions,”’ “necessities,” ‘“dis- 
tresses,’ are incident to those who must eat 
bread in the sweat of their face, the hard way 
of life for the poor of this world, both good and 
bad. And so it must continue to some extent 
with every preacher of the cross, for “not many 
rich, not many noble are called.” The apostle- 
ship that originated among humble fishermen 
and found its constituency among people for 
the most part of the same class, will have its 
successors mainly among the poor of earth, 
subject to the afflictions, necessities and dis- 
tresses of poverty. The Gospel that was des- 
tined to capture Caesar’s household, and 
ultimately Caesar himself, was first to win its 
way among those whom the world despised, and 


120 The Minister and His Own Soul 


both preacher and Gospel were for a long time 
to be shut out from all that men call prosperity; 
to endure, what one of these words intimates, a 
state of siege. The man who has had no expe- 
rience of poverty will have difficulty, therefore, 
in reconciling himself to a ministerial career, 
and in entering into sympathy with the largest 
section of his people. A preacher who is poor 
is so far from being a poor preacher that he is. 
often the best we have, and more effective be- 
cause of his poverty. 

The only reward the world had to offer those 
who first bore to them the imperishable riches 
was “stripes, imprisonments, tumults.” It 
might have been, it should have been far other- 
wise, but the Master set this forth in plain 
words, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” 
Saint Paul makes no quarrel with this. He 
accepts it as one of the conditions of his min- 
istry, inevitable as gravity. He draws up no 
indictment of his age, makes no complaint of 
ingratitude. He simply records his experience. 
To be sure times have greatly changed in this 
respect. Ministers for the most part are not 
only not molested, but receive great respect and 
not unfrequently adequate reward for their 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 121 


service. But the faithful preacher has yet 
much to endure of opposition of a kind which is 
harder to endure than physical mistreatment, 
A minister could bear “beating with rods” with 
more equanimity than he can bear the indif- 
ference and inertia of his hearers. To be unto 
those who listen to his message only ‘as a 
lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, 
and can play well on an instrument” is worse 
than “stripes, imprisonments and tumults.” 
Yet this is also experience. To shirk it, to be 
afraid of it, is to miss a fine part of the disci- 
pline through which we come to perfection. 
The third of these trinities outlines Saint 
Paul’s experience in the actual performance of 
his task; “labors, watchings, fastings.” These 
were not necessary in the order of nature, nor 
inflicted upon him by others, but voluntarily 
assumed. There is a way, and many find it, to 
do a disagreeable duty or a hard task so as to 
make light demand upon the nervous forces, to 
do just enough to escape the censure for not 
doing anything. But Saint Paul matched his 
task with his effort. He took his task seriously 
and made it the business of his life to be found 
equal to it and faithful in it. To enter the 


122 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ministry in order to find an easy life is as ab- 
surd if not as sordid, as to enter it in order to 
get rich. If your will is to be rich or to be at 
ease in Zion then avoid the ministry, for it will 
be a life-long failure and drown you at last 
in perdition. 

All these particulars go to make up a course 
in experience. The student’s first lesson is to 
learn his environment, and the minister’s en- 
vironment is one of straightened resources, of 
active or passive hostility and of hard work. 
The man who has not learned these may enter 
the ministry, and he may find some satisfac- 
tion in it, but whatever his salary and whatever 
his popularity he will be a failure, an interloper. 
His ministry will be narrow, his preaching 
empty of the richest content, and his life void 
in the sight of God and of men. 

2. The second division of this course contains 
two groups of words, four in each group, de- 
scribing a new phase of experience. 

1. In pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffer- 
ing, in kindness. 

2. In the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in 
the word of truth, in the power of God. 

These experiences differ from those just de- 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 123 


scribed in a way that can be best defined by 
calling them subjective. Of course all experi- 
ence is subjective in one sense. But there are 
experiences originating in circumstances out- 
side of the subject of them, produced by what 
happens to him; and there are experiences pro- 
duced by what takes place in the subject, and 
these are what may be properly called subjec- 
tive experiences. One we may call experiences 
of environment and the other experiences of 
equipment. 

The first of these groups of equipment expe- 
riences describe the natural, human qualities of 
mind and heart which enter so largely into the 
success of the preacher of the cross. They 
are not so much attainments as gifts, and they 
are gifts of the heart more than of the mind. 
“Pureness” is sincerity, single-heartedness. 
“Knowledge” is insight, wisdom of the heart. 
“Long-suffering” is good temper, and “Kind- 
ness” is tact, both embraced under the general 
idea of forbearance, the first being exercised 
toward things and the second toward persons. 

What a school of the heart was this to Saint 
Paul! This great scholar, great statesman, 
prince among men and things, “from his shoul- 


124 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ders and upward higher than any of the people” 
passed through this heart school until he ex- 
ulted to call himself the “bond slave of Jesus 
Christ.” Working with men, opposing, fickle, 
ungrateful men, and yet always keeping his 
heart steady to a single purpose, always wise to 
judge and to discriminate times and things, al- 
ways patient to wait for untoward events to 
shape themselves and for unreasonable men to 
adapt themselves to the steady drift of the eter- 
nal purpose which he had discerned in Christ 
Jesus. This is what experience did for him and 
what it will do for any of us in our measure, 

Then we are suddenly brought face to face 
with another group of words describing expe- 
rience with the supernatural. The preacher of 
the cross is not to be limited to the resources of 
his own natural qualities, even when these are 
refined and heightened by divine grace. He is 
to be reenforced by direct communication of 
spiritual power from on high, to be made the 
instrument of supernatural activities. In this 
process his own spirit is to be made holy, his 
love purged of all hypocrisy, his word to be 
informed with absolute truth, and his power 
to be merged into the power of God. What a 


° 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 1D 


barren, hopeless ministry would ours be if the 
supernatural were eliminated, if we did not 
believe in a Holy Spirit, in a Divine love, in a 
Word of truth, in a Power of God! How 
foolish do rationalistic speculations become in a 
minister who does not seem to realize that the 
more he succeeds in this attempt the more he 
exposes his own office to the contempt of men. 
His ministry must be more than natural or it 
is nothing. But with a Divine spirit, a Divine 
love, a Divine truth and a Divine power, noth- 
ing can resist him. He becomes “‘God’s chosen 
vessel” to bear his name to all nations. With 
this Divine spirit he can bring to life those that 
are dead in trespasses and sin. With this 
Divine love he can charm away hate, envy and 
all uncharitableness. With this Divine word 
he can subdue stubborn wills and convince gain- 
sayers. And with this Divine power he can 
do all things through Christ which strength- 
eneth him. Infinite resources for infinite 
results in infinite measure are at the command 
of every preacher as they were at the command 
of Saint Paul. 

3. The third division of this curriculum pre- 
sents another phase of experience. The experi- 


126 The Minister and His Own Soul 


ence of environment and the experience of 
equipment are now to be followed by what we 
may call the experience of action. If the expe- 
rience of environment has been gained by sub- 
jecting himself as a passive victim to privations . 
and stripes and imprisonment; if the experience 
of equipment has been gained by subjecting 
himself as a passive recipient to the renewing 
power of divine grace and the overcoming 
power of supernatural enduement; his experi- 
ence has not yet completed itself, still he must 
be enlarged. And so he passes on next to the 
experience of an active agent, a doer. 

The change, in Greek, in the form of the 
preposition suggests this difference of attitude. 
Instead of existing “in” certain conditions, cir- 
cumstances, and so forth, he now takes hold of 
' and accomplishes “by” this or that instrument. 
Instead of being acted upon he himself is the 
actor and he makes events and circumstances 
serve him. Another suggestion is that the 
armor spoken of is for the right hand and for 
the left hand, indicating that he has armor 
for attack as well as for defense. It will not 
confuse the description to find only one word 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 127 


used to describe this armor, the word “right- 
eousness,” for righteousness means both doing 
right and being right. There is no mightier 
weapon and no surer defense than to do right 
and to be right, inside and outside, to friends 
and to foes, yesterday, to-day and forever, as a 
preacher andas aman. It will make any man 
irresistible in attack and invulnerable in de- 
fense. It will be interesting also to note another 
rendering of “righteousness.” Moffatt renders 
it “integrity.” It is not important exegetically, 
but it does finely suggest a kind of rightness 
most important to ministers. You remember 
from your arithmetic days the distinction be- 
tween an integer and a fraction. “Integer’’ is 
what integrity comes from. Saint Paul is 
striving to be a whole man, not a fractional part 
of aman. I do not know any profession where 
whole men are demanded to-day more insis- 
tently than in the ministry. So many preach- 
ers are inefficient because they are not integers. 
They are a little of this and not much of that. 
They look all right on one side, but, like 
Ephraim, they area cake not turned. They are 
not complete in anything, mere fractions. 


128 The Minister and His Own Soul 


And, finally note this array of descriptive 
words describing the result of his action, as if 
it were a sort of final test or examination. On 
one hand is the description of the man which 
might be called his reputation, what men think 
or say he is. On the other the description of 
what by God’s grace he really is, his character. 
It is his real task to accomplish a character like 
that, and it is by such a character that his real 
work is accomplished. This is his real culture. 
It is not to be found in books, neither will 
seminaries teach it. It is to be developed in 
the school of experience, and there alone. 

I would not go about to make things hard 
just for the sake of hardness. Hardness has 
no essential virtue. But it cannot be said too 
emphatically that if you evade the experience 
you will miss the character. And when I see 
men doing so much thinking and planning and 
even praying to be kept out of the hard places, 
I know the development of character is sure 
to be slow and uncertain. If the best physical 
and the best intellectual development come only 
as the result of struggle, how can we expect 
spiritual development on any other terms? 


Saint Paul’s Scheme 129 


“Sure I must fight if I would reign.” 


“Are they ministers of Christ?” Saint Paul 
exclaims to those who would impugn his apos- 
tleship. “I am more,” uper ego. “I am mad 
to talk like this,” he says; but no, Paul, it is the 
absolute truth, you are uper, you are more, if 
only because you have taken the larger course 
in experience. “In labors more abundant, in 
stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
quent, in deaths more often.” 

What will you have, brethren? Will you 
be the uper minister at this price? All our 
instruction is to the same effect. “We must 
through much tribulation enter the kingdom.” 
The minister who would live easily and go 
softly and rid himself of trouble and have no 
enemies and expect and plan for things to be 
made pleasant for him, is an anachronism, born 
in the wrong time and prenticed to the wrong 
Master. He ought either to get out of his 
present job or out of his present self. If he 
would overcome the world he must overcome 
first his flabby, ease-loving, shrinking self. 
Only thus and then will he be ready for his 


130 The Minister and His Own Soul 


life work, cultured to the broadest possibilities, 
“a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” 

After that, instead of fawning upon poor 
human favor, or truckling to poor human dis- 
favor, he may boldly grasp in his right hand 
the sword of active endeavor, determined to do 
something in the world, something worth a 
man’s while; and in his left hand he will hold 
the shield of character, determined to be some- 
thing in the world, something that God will 
count worth while; and to the fickle, whimsical, 
superficial god men call reputation he dares to 
say, “Do your worst. Make me or break me 
as you can, by glory or dishonor, by evil re- 
port or good report, as dying or living, do your 
worst, O reputation, god of things as they are, 
yet so will I be enlarged. I will graduate from 
the great university of experience. I will be 
entitled to be called “Doctor divinitatis.” I 
will make up the full sum of all that Christ 
has to suffer in my person on behalf of the 
church, his Body. I will learn in whatsoever 
state I am therein to be content, and to be 
happy, and to be efficient, and to be victorious 
through him who called me and ordained me 
and sent me to fulfill this ministry. 


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